MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College men's soccer team moved into a tie for second place in the Ohio Athletic Conference standings with a 2-1 win over Muskingum University Thursday (April 8) evening.
The Pioneers improve to 6-2-0 on the season and 6-2-0 in the OAC. Marietta and Wilmington College (6-2-0) each have 18 points in the league standings with one match to play in the regular season. John Carroll University (7-0-0) is in first place with 21 points.
With six conference wins, this year's Pioneer squad has tied the school record for conference wins. The 1984 OAC Championship team was 6-2-0 and the 2002 team went 6-3-0. Marietta hosts Baldwin Wallace on Sunday (April 11) at 2 p.m. with a chance to set a new program record for OAC wins.
"Tonight, was not our best performance to date but give Muskingum credit. Their athleticism caused us huge problems," Marietta head coach
Joe Bergin said. "Evan's (Taylor) goal at the end of the first half shifted momentum to us. We took advantage of that after the break and picked up the second goal. Unfortunately, we gave it right back with the red card. Credit to our boys for digging deep and seeing the game out."
Muskingum (1-7-0 overall, 1-7-0 OAC) stunned the home crowd with a goal in the seventh minute of the match. Trevor Firkel's header was dropped by the Pioneer goalie in front of the goal where Chris Lytus was waiting slipped the ball inside the right post for his first goal of the season.
Marietta turned up its intensity on offense and earned several corner kicks as a result. The Pioneers' sixth corner of the first half resulted in the equalizing goal in the 44th minute. On the heels of a Muskingum yellow card,
Gavin Chappel (Oakdale, Pa./West Allegheny) dropped the perfect corner kick into the box where
Evan Taylor (Bay Village, Ohio/Bay) headed inside the left post for his first goal of the season.
Having leveled the match right before halftime, the Pioneers started the second half intent on keeping the momentum on their side. Marietta fired off four quick shots, two on goal, and earned a pair of corner kicks in the opening minutes of the period.
The second corner was taken from the left side by
Jovonni Auddino (Columbus, Ohio/Westerville North). Auddino's corner was deflected back to him and he riffled a shot to the far post that beat the Muskingum keeper and found the back of the net for the game winning goal in the 53rd minute.
11 minutes later the Muskies were awarded a free kick following a Marietta foul and turned the kick into a break away scoring opportunity. Muskingum got behind the Marietta defense and Pioneer keeper,
Ryan Riccillo (Canton, Ohio/GlenOak) came out of goal and made a hard tackle on the Muskie attacker that resulted in a red card.
Senior
Dakota Penquite (Blanchester, Ohio/Blanchester) took over in goal for the Pioneers and wasted no time in making his presence known. The red card resulted in a free kick for the Muskies from just outside the top of the 18-yard box. Firkel fired a well-struck shot over the Pioneer wall but Penquite was there to make the save and preserve Marietta's 2-1 lead.
Despite playing down a man over the final 26 minutes, the Pioneers managed as many shot opportunities as Muskingum taking six shots to seven for the Muskies in that span.
For the match, Marietta outshot the Muskies, 20-15, including a 10-7 advantage in shots on goal. The Pioneers had a decisive edge in corners, 10-1.
Riccillo picked up the win in goal for the Pioneers and made three saves in 63-plus minutes. Penquite posted three saves on the final 26-plus minutes. Damon Spaeth went the distance in goal for the Muskies and made eight saves in the match.
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.
