The No. 5 Ohio Northern men's soccer advanced the Third Round of the NCAA III Tournament with a 3-1 victory over No. 6 Carnegie Mellon Saturday evening at the MCU Soccer Field. The Polar Bears improve to 22-2-0 on the year, while the Tartans finish their season at 13-4-1.
Northern will face No. 10 Susquehanna (Pa.) in the Third Round at a site and time that will be announced Monday.
The Tartans had the first chance of the evening in the 12th minute, when John Crawshaw headed a cross that sailed wide. CMU struck first at the 19:54 mark when Chris Wysocki took a pass from Matt Sarett and buried it in the upper left corner.
ONU responded in the 26th minute, when senior Nate Bascom headed a shot that was saved, but freshman Keegan Ross was right there to knock it home to tie things at 1-1.
"It was very important for us to get that goal in the first half," said head coach Brent Ridenour. "We could have went away after going down early, but we fought back and got the tie heading into the half."
In the second half, CMU got a chance in the 49th minute when Max Tassano rocketed a shot from inside the box, but senior goalkepper Mac Church made a nice stop to deny the Tartans the lead.
Senior Chris Matejka then put ONU up 2-1 in the 56th minute, when he passed to senior Cameron Johnson who then paseed it back to Matejka who beat the goalie. Junior Stephen Perkins expanded the lead to 3-1, when he headed in a goal off of a corner kick from Matejka at the 58:44 mark.
The Polar Bears almost tacked another goal to their lead when senior Austin Windsor sent in a kick that deflected off the goalie and Johnson gained possession and fired a shot that was saved.
The Tartans looked to answer when Daniel Niel-Kursman dribbled down the field and fired a shot that sailed just wide of the goal in the 73rd minute. Windsor fired a shot in the 82nd minute that Tartan goalie Christopher Madden was able to stop.
Northern was able to run out the clock as the Tartans couldn't get anyhing going in the final minutes. "I challenged our guys to shut them out in the second half," Ridenour added. "We knew that if we were going to beat them, then we couldn't let them score again. We did just that and I am very proud of everyone."
Mac Church made two saves on the evening and betters his record to 22-2 overall.
Madden made four saves and concludes his season at 12-3-1.
The Polar Bears had a 13-10 advantage in shots and took six corner kicks as opposed to only two for Carnegie Mellon. This will be the second straight trip to the third round for Northern and the third trip in the school's history.
