Late Goal Pushes Wilmington Past Wittenberg Men's Soccer

SPRINGFIELD, OH - Following an unexpected two-week layoff from competition due to campus security concerns, Wittenberg Men's Soccer went toe to toe with one of the top scoring teams in all of NCAA Division III before dropping a hard-fought 3-2 decision to visiting Wilmington.

The win moved the Quakers, who had scored 16 goals in their previous two games and a whopping 40 already this season, to 7-0-3 with one non-conference game left on their schedule. Wittenberg, playing for the first time in two weeks, fell to 2-3-1 and will now focus on what promises to be a grueling North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) schedule. That starts with a road trip to perennial powerhouse Ohio Wesleyan on Friday, October 4.

Things started well for Wittenberg as the Tigers showed some life right off the kickoff to earn a corner kick. Kees Ciric (Loveland, OH / Loveland) swung a left-footed delivery into the penalty area and Jack Pascoal (Liberty Township, OH / Lakota East) attacked it perfectly, pounding a header into the Wilmington goal just 32 seconds into the contest.

Wilmington responded with a pair of well-worked goals in the 16th minute and the 24th minute to claim a 2-1 lead, but the Tigers evened the score in the dying seconds of the first half. Christopher Meyer (Toledo, OH / St. Francis) picked a defender's pocket, took a couple of touches to set up a shot on his left foot, and calmly buried the ball into the bottom corner of the goal.

After the offensive fireworks of the opening half, the two teams continued their wide open, end-to-end attacking play in the second half but just one goal came from all of the hard work put in on a humid, rainy evening. Unfortunately for Wittenberg, that goal was provided by Wilmington's Parker Burke, who put the finishing touches on a another good spell of combination play. The Quakers' Jace Houck was credited with assists on all three Wilmington goals.

For the game, Wilmington was credited with 21 shots, compared to 18 for Wittenberg. The Quakers held a 5-4 edge in corner kicks.

Ciric led Wittenberg with five shots and Meyer added four. Cameron Elliott (Springfield, OH / Springfield) and Collin LaVeck (Carroll, OH / Bloom-Carroll) contributed three shots each. In goal, Sam Nitzberg (Cincinnati, OH / Cincinnati Country Day) got the start and made three saves in the first half. Peter Adams (Columbus, OH / Hilliard Darby) took over in the second half, and he also made three saves.