MARIETTA, Ohio — Roanoke College defeated Marietta College by the score of 1-0 Saturday (Sept. 16) afternoon in men's soccer action. The Pioneers move to 2-4-1 overall, while Roanoke improves to 2-3-1 on the season.
"Today was frustrating. We had a decent first half and we went away from what we were doing and starting going long with it. They are a big team and we never won firsts or seconds," Marietta head coach
Joe Bergin said. "They get a scrappy goal from their work rate and they had enough class to keep us chasing shadows the rest of the night. We need to rethink what we are doing and that starts in the morning."
Scoring opportunities were limited for both teams in the first half. Roanoke took five shots, but only one was on target. The Pioneers managed four shots with just two on frame. Both teams headed into halftime with the score tied at 0-0.
Marietta starting keeper
Joey Backhaus (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield) left the game with an injury in the 54th minute. Roanoke turned up the intensity on the Marietta defense and managed the game winner in the 67th minute. The Maroons dropped a corner kick into the box and after a flurry of action from both teams, Carter Laatsch got a shot of that slipped the ball into the lower left corner of the goal.
Several hard fouls resulted in yellow cards as both teams' physical style of play dominated the second half. Five yellow cards were issued in the second half to go along with 20 fouls in the match.
Luca Gustafson recorded the shutout in goal for the Maroons making two saves. Backhaus posted thee saves before exiting the match.
Luke Price (Perrysburg, Ohio/Perrysburg) had one save and allowed the lone goal in 36-plus minutes of action.
For the match, Roanoke outshot the Pioneers 15-5, but only managed a slim 5-2 advantage in shots on goal. The Marrons took eight corners to Marietta's three.
The Pioneers hit the road for a pair of matches next week. Marietta travels to Kenyon on Wednesday (Sept. 20) for a 3:30 p.m. match and then play at Carnegie Mellon on Saturday (Sept. 23) at 3 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.
