SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers put together a solid all-around performance to blow past the visiting Wabash Little Giants, 4-0, and remain undefeated.
The Tigers, ranked seventh in the nation and first in the Great Lakes Region in the latest NSCAA polls, started out slow against Wabash, missing several open opportunities until senior midfielder Jimmy Thinnes (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle)opened up the flood gates. Thinnes scored the first goal of the game in the 29th minutes, awakening the Tiger offense and putting them back into their customary game speed. Once the Tigers picked up the pace, the Little Giants, who fell to 0-5 in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) with the loss, slowly started slipping away.
After a goal by freshman midfielder Andy Sharek (Sewickley, Pa./Sewickley Academy) made the score 2-0 at halftime, the Tigers found themselves on the defensive, resulting in the only bad news of the night. Just two minutes into the second half, senior captain Justin Jenkins (Dublin, Ohio/Coffman) landed awkwardly after a hard tackle, resulting in the leader of the defense suffering a broken collarbone. After the ambulance took one of their leaders off the field, the Tigers' collective state of mind seemed to change. Within a minute after the game restarted, the Tigers scored again on a header by junior forward Ryan Ruef (Plain City, Ohio/Jonathan Alder) to put the game out of reach.
With 20 minutes left in the second half the Tigers began shuttling reserve players on and off the bench. After a poor showing against Oberlin, in which the second unit allowed two goals in two minutes, the Tigers regained their confidence and continued to take the action to the Little Giants. Sophomore Tom Fisher (Ridgefield, Conn./Ridgefield) had two great header attempts on goal as the Tigers watched the final seconds tick off the clock after senior Brian Dickman (Dublin, Ohio/Scioto) rounded out the scoring with an unassisted goal in the 83rd minute.
Wittenberg, which picked up three assists in the game from senior Matt Borland (Kettering, Ohio/Alter), improved to 13-0 on the season, including a 4-0 mark in the NCAC, heading into a key game Saturday at Kenyon.
Written By: Brenton Dawson