UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio — The Marietta College men's soccer team traveled northward to battle John Carroll University and was defeated, 5-1, Saturday (Oct. 7) evening in Ohio Athletic Conference play.
 
The Pioneers fall to 3-8-1 overall and 1-2-0 in the OAC. John Carroll improves to 9-2-1 on the season and 3-0-0 in league matches.
 
"We knew coming in that JCU was good and that we had to minimize the mistakes," said Marietta Head Coach Joe Bergin. "We made some and they made us pay each time.  When we made it 3-1, we had a jump in our step and were getting some things done. We couldn't get that second score and we got punished with two late goals." 
 
John Carroll's Nicholas Graeca scored a goal with an assist from Izac Coleman in the 29th minute to give John Carroll the early lead. Jack Foht added a second goal 10 minutes later, with an assist from Patrick Koenig, and the Blue Streaks took a 2-0 lead into intermission.
 
The score remained the same until the 64th minute when Ben Brucken found the back of the net to extend the Blue Streak lead.  Peyton Maynard finally got the Pioneers on the board five minutes later to cut the lead to two.  Brendan Swann added an insurance score in the 86th minute with a penalty kick and the Blue Streaks claimed a 5-1 OAC victory.
 
Joey Backhaus (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield) went the distance in goal for the Pioneers and posted seven saves.  Brenden Moher had one save in goal for the Blue Streaks in 90 minutes of action.
 
"I'm proud of the fight we displayed," concluded Coach Bergin. "We need to keep that going for us to reach our team goals." 

Marietta travels to take on Mount Union on Wednesday (Oct. 11) 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.