Wittenberg Defeats Notre Dame in Physical Match
It wasn't pretty, but it was gutsy. The Wittenberg Tigers battled back from two different deficits to take a hard-fought 4-3 decision over Notre Dame College. The win game Wittenberg third place in the annual Wittenberg Invitational.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - It wasn't pretty, but it was gutsy. The Wittenberg Tigers battled back from two different deficits to take a hard-fought 4-3 decision over Notre Dame College. The win game Wittenberg third place in the annual Wittenberg Invitational.
Sebastian Missura was the offensive story of the game as he recorded his first career hat trick. He had Wittenberg's first goal of the season, which tied the game at one in the first half, and he had the last two scores of the game, which helped the Tigers overcome a late 3-2 deficit and capture the victory. Missura led the team with 10 goals and 19 total points a year ago.
Notre Dame, which lost 1-0 on Saturday to Otterbein, started the scoring about 11 minutes into the game with a goal by Frank Jonke. After Missura tied it on a rebound shot off after a nice give-and-go between freshman Bryan Lopes and junior Matt Berry, Wittenberg went ahead at the 18:05 mark of the first half on the first collegiate goal by freshman Evan Ingram. The assist, following a scrum in front of the net, went to Berry. Notre Dame's Chris Loughlin tied the game with a supreme individual effort as he dribbled through several defenders to knot things at 2-2 going into halftime.
NDC went ahead 3-2 on a Jonke goal midway through the second half before the Tigers finally got things going their way for good. Taking advantage of what appeared to be some tired defensive legs on the Notre Dame side, the Tigers pressured the opposition's goal for much of the final 20 minutes and hit paydirt with Missura's two goals. Both came off rebounds of goalie saves.
Wittenberg, which received four yellow cards to two for Notre Dame, evened its record at 1-1 after Saturday's 4-0 loss to Ohio Dominican. There were 31 fouls recorded in the game, 17 for the visitors and 14 for the hosts.
Sophomore goalkeeper Adam Horrocks came up with seven saves, none bigger than when he cradled a last second shot off a direct kick outside the penalty box with just three seconds remaining in the game.