Late Otterbein Goal Forges Tie With Tigers

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - With temperatures approaching 90 degrees, the Wittenberg Tigers and Otterbein Cardinals battled through 110 minutes of game action before settling for a 2-2 draw.

The tie left Wittenberg with a record of 0-1-2 after the first week of the 2015 season. Otterbein is now 0-2-1 overall.

It was Wittenberg's second straight tie against an Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) rival, coming on the heels of Friday's 1-1 draw with Heidelberg, also played at Wittenberg's Edwards-Maurer Field. The Tigers' annual fall tour through the OAC continues with a road trip to Ohio Northern on Wednesday, Sept. 9.

The scoring opened in the eighth minute as junior Patrick Szymczak (Westerville, Ohio/South) took advantage of an errant Otterbein pass and broke in on the Cardinal goal alone with the keeper. His shot found the back of the net, but less than three minutes later Otterbein's Luis Rivas tallied from long distance with a wicked, bending shot to tie the game.

Wittenberg went back in front in the 24th minute as senior Zack Moore (Kettering, Ohio/Alter) knocked home a rebound. Freshman Nick Gutlove (Canton, Ohio/IMG Academy (Fla.)) picked up the assist after heading a corner kick into the goal mouth that was saved but bounced right to Moore.

The Tigers clung to the lead through the 78th minute when Rivas scored again, this time depositing a corner kick into the back of the goal with his head. From that point, the two teams both threatened multiple times but were unable to score. Wittenberg had two different shots cleared off the goal line by Otterbein defenders to keep the game even.

Wittenberg finished the game with 19 shots and 14 corner kicks, compared to eight shots and eight corner kicks for the Cardinals. Otterbein's Lukas Swysgood made nine saves in the game, while Wittenberg freshman Jack Snider (Beavercreek, Ohio/Beavercreek) was credited with two stops.

Written By: Ryan Maurer