BEREA, Ohio — The Marietta College men's soccer team opened Ohio Athletic Conference play with a 2-1 win over Baldwin Wallace Saturday (Oct.) evening. The Pioneers move to 3-4-3 overall and 1-0-0 in the OAC. Baldwin Wallace suffers its first loss of the season and falls to 9-1-1 overall and 0-1-0 in the OAC.
""I'm incredibly proud of the effort the boys put forth tonight. Playing against an undefeated, full of confidence BW on their home ground is tough," Marietta head coach
Joe Bergin said. "We relied on our senior leadership tonight to set the right tone. That tone was set during the week as training has been incredibly high level and it showed on the first goal. A series of quick give and goes and we were up 1-0."
Marietta's first goal came in the 29th minute.
Jacob Roberto (Berea, Ohio/Berea-Midpark) fed the ball to
Caden Ferguson (Mars, Pa./Mars Area) streaking down the right sideline. Ferguson one-timed a perfect cross to
Jovonni Auddino (Columbus, Ohio/Westerville North) who one-timed it into the lower right corner of the net from 12 yards out for the score.
The Pioneers took the 1-0 lead into halftime. Each team had three shots on goal in the first 45 minutes.
"BW fought back to get level but there was a sense of calm on the sideline, and it showed with Elliot's goal. At that point with 10 minutes to go it was about managing the game and I felt we did that well," Bergin said. "We will enjoy it tonight, but the OAC is crazy difficult, and we are on the road again Wednesday."
Baldwin Wallace leveled the match on a penalty kick in the 56th minute. Auddino was whistled for a foul inside the box when he went over top of a Yellow Jacket trying to win a 50/50 ball out of the air. Owen Reyes converted the penalty to tie the score, 1-1.
Elliot Britton (High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire/John Hampden Grammar) delivered the game winner in the 80th minute. Britton received the ball at the top of the 18-yard box and sun to his left around a BW defender and fired a shot between two defenders into the lower left corner of the net for the goal.
The Pioneers controlled the ball for the majority of the second half taking 11 shots to just five for the Yellow Jackets. For the match, the Pioneers held a 15-13 edge in shots, although BW had a 7-6 lead in shots on goal.
Joey Backhaus (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield) played all 90 minutes in goal for Marietta recording five saves. Zoltan Nagy went the distance in goal for BW posting four saves.
Marietta plays at Muskingum University on Wednesday (Oct. 5). Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
Fans can follow all 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.
