MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College men's soccer team regular season came to end Saturday (Oct. 28) evening with a 6-1 loss to Ohio Northern University. With the loss, the Pioneers finished the regular season with a 6-11-1 record, 4-5 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Despite the loss, the Pioneers will finish in sixth place in the OAC and will play in the first round of the tournament next week.
"We were not at our best today," said Marietta men's soccer head coach
Joe Bergin. "It was the right move but against a really good ONU team it was not a recipe for success."
Before the match, the Pioneers honored their six seniors:
Jacob Gangle (Findlay, Ohio/Findlay),
James Crossey (Belfast, North Ireland/Methodist College Belfast),
Sean Fournier (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta),
Gavin Chappel (Oakdale, Pa./West Allegheny),
Ben Teasdale (Yorkshire, United Kingdom/Ryedale), and
Reggie Grayek (Shavertown, Pa./Wyoming Seminary College Prep.).
Ohio Northern put the first points on the board when Ryan Parker scored in the seventh minute and then Ryan Summerfield scored 75 seconds later, giving the Polar Bears a 2-0 lead. The Pioneers did not get many scoring opportunities as they took only three first half shots. Ohio Northern took the 2-0 lead into intermission.
The Polar Bears extended their lead in the second half as Kellen Minch came off the bench and scored in the 46th and 50th minutes, pushing the lead to 4-0. Parker scored again six minutes later and Cade Winchester tacked on a goal in the 73rd minute to complete the Polar Bear scoring.
Marietta finally got on the board in the 81st minute when they received their first corner kick of the contest. The Pioneers sent a great pass into the box and, after a carom,
Eli Bembry (Hamilton, Ohio/Fairfield) sent a header into the back of the net, breaking up the shutout.
Joey Backhaus (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield) worked the first 56 minutes in the goal for the Pioneers and posted five saves.
Andrew Stein (Wilmington, N.C./JT Hoggard) finished the game and posted three saves.
Marietta is projected to face Mount Union on Tuesday (Oct. 31) in the first round of the OAC Tournament, with a scheduled 7 p.m. start time.
"We put the goal at the start of the year of making the playoffs," concluded Coach Bergin. "We accomplished that and we get a chance to erase this game from our memory on Tuesday."
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 X and Instagram.
