MARIETTA, Ohio — Penn State Behrend scored a goal in the final minutes of the match to beat Marietta College, 2-1, Saturday (Sept. 24) afternoon in men's soccer action. The loss drops the Pioneers to 2-4-3 overall, while the Lions improve to 4-1-3 on the season.
"We are inventing new ways to not get a result. This time it is a rush of blood to the head. We have to be smarter and not react. It put us down a man for virtually the whole half," Marietta head coach
Joe Bergin said. "I love the effort and desire to fight back and quite honestly, have the better of the play. But we can't do that to ourselves. It just won't work. We have to dust ourselves off and get ready for the OAC where it will only get harder."
Once again the Pioneers found themselves in an early hole when Penn State scored off a corner kick in the fourth minute of the match. Blake Cooper sent the ball into the box from the right corner where Aaron Kovatch was waiting to fire a shot into the back of the net for a 1-0 Lion lead.
Following the goal, both teams settled into a physical battle. Several hard fouls, a few cards and a couple of heated confrontations between players that had to be separated didn't result in any scoring for the remainder of the half and Behrend took a 1-0 lead into the intermission.
The physical play continued in the second half and a Marietta player retaliated after a hard Penn State tackles and was issued a red car and ejected from the match forcing the Pioneers to play the final 43-plus minutes down a man.
As often happens, Marietta regrouped and controlled play most of the second half. The Pioneers leveled the match in the 61st minute when
Caden Ferguson (Mars, Pa./Mars Area) dribbled the ball down the left side of the 18-yard box and crossed the ball to
Gavin Long (Surrey, United Kingdom/John Fisher School) in the middle of the field. Long fired a shot into the back of the net tying the game, 1-1.
Elliot Britton (High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire/John Hampden Grammar) just missed the go-ahead goal when Lion keeper Sam York got a finger on Britton's header and nudged it over the bar in the 89th minute. Penn State successfully defended the ensuing corner kick and quickly went on the counterattack.
Johnathan Swann fed a perfect pass to a streaking Blake on the left side of the 18-yard box. Marietta keeper
Joey Backhaus (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield) came off his line and was caught in no man's land leaving the goal open for Blake. Blake placed the ball in the lower right corner for the game-winner.
Backhaus went the distance in goal posting four saves. York notched four saves as well.
Marietta opens Ohio Athletic Conference play this week with a road game. The Pioneers play at Baldwin Wallace on Saturday (Oct. 1) at 7:00 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.
