MARIETTA, Ohio – A pair of goals by sophomore midfielder
Gavin Long (Surrey, United Kingdom/John Fisher School) sparked a 3-0 win for the Marietta College men's soccer team on Saturday (Sept. 21) evening against Washington and Jefferson College. The win improves the Pioneers record to 3-4 overall and with the loss the Presidents fall to 2-5 on the season.
"Simply put tonight, we took care of business. We did a really good job of managing the game," said Head Coach
Joe Bergin. "The start of the second half was particularly good as we came out flying and put them under pressure and got the all-important third goal of the game on a really nice
Gavin Long (Surrey, United Kingdom/John Fisher School) volley. I felt after that we may have taken our foot off the gas, but we got the win and never will I be unhappy with a win."
Marietta opened the scoring in the 21st minute of the game when David Beattie scored an unassisted goal. Beattie's goal was a shot from the top right of the 18-yard box to the far upper left corner of the goal to put the Pioneers up 1-0.
17 minutes later Marietta doubled its lead when Long scored his first goal of the game and his fourth of the season. Long took the assist from
Sebastian Ziaja (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest), dribbled past the goalie and placed the ball in the back of the net. The Pioneers entered the intermission ahead, 2-0.
Marietta came out of the locker room ready to play, as they increased their lead to 3-0 three minutes into the second half. Long notched his second goal of the game off a volley from 20 yards away.
The Pioneers defense of Ziaja, Beattie,
Colston Roades (Mount Orab, Ohio/Western Brown), and
Elliot Britton (High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire/John Hampden Grammar) only allowed one shot on goal all game, and helped goalie
Trevor Dykstra (Jamestown, N.Y./Falconer Central) pitch a shutout. Dykstra played all 90 minutes in goal, faced nine shots, one of which was on goal, and made one save.
Marietta will be back in action Wednesday (Sept. 25) when they host Case Western, with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.
Fans can follow all of the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
