ALLIANCE, Ohio — No. 22 ranked Mount Union scored in the 108th minute to come from behind and defeat Marietta College by the score of 2-1 Tuesday (Oct. 31) night in the quarterfinal round of the Ohio Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament.
The Pioneers end their season with a 6-12-1 overall record. Mount Union improves to 16-2-1 and advances to the semifinals. The Purple Raiders will play at No. 2 seed Ohio Northern on Thursday.
"When we left here three plus weeks ago our season was on the brink and we were floundering as a team," Marietta head coach
Joe Bergin said. "The team doubled down on their efforts and we tweaked our plans and tonight was a culmination of those efforts. We battled the #22 team in the country and can walk out with our heads held high."
I'm gutted for the boys. We came in with the belief that we could win. Up 1-0 with 15 minutes left we were in good position to do that. I can live with the penalty call but I felt the red card was awfully harsh. We then were left to trying to hang on to get to pens it it wasn't meant to be."
Defense controlled the first half as neither team found the back of the net. The Purple Raiders fired off 10 shots in the first half but only three were on goal, all saved by Marietta keeper
Joey Backhaus (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield). Mount Union keeper Jackson Callender made one save in the first 45 minutes.
As snow flurries began to fly in the second half, the Pioneers managed to grab the lead in the 59th minute.
Taj Haidar (Sylvania, Ohio/Sylvania Southview) sent a perfectly placed through ball to
Reggie Grayek (Shavertown, Pa./Wyoming Seminary College Prep.) streaking down the right wing. Faced with a one-on-one, Callender was forced to come off his line and Grayek fired the ball into the lower left corner for a 1-0 Pioneer lead.
Mount Union turned up the pressure on offense and was rewarded with a penalty kick when the Pioneers were whistled for a foul inside the box. Jamon McCort converted the penalty leveling the match, 1-1, in the 77th minute.
In the aftermath of the penalty kick Marietta was issued a red card and had a player sent off forcing the Pioneers to play the remainder of the match a man down.
Marietta's defense limited the Purple Raiders to one shot in the remainder of the half and the match went into overtime tied at 1-1.
In the first overtime period, Mount Union took three shots to one for the Pioneers. However, Marietta's one shot was the only one on goal in the period as it was saved by Callender.
Mount Union scored the game winner in the 108th minute. McCort sent a long ball into the box. A Marietta defender got a head on the ball but it ended up at the feet of Jon Szydlowski who went upper 90 inside the right post for the winning goal.
"I'm proud of this group and this season," Bergin said. "With all the challenges we had, this team has given us a lot to build off of."
For the match, Mount Union outshot the Pioneers 31-8, but the margin was much closer in shots on goal where the Purple Raiders held a 10-3 advantage. Backhaus finished with eight saves, while Callender finished with two.
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.
