Bascom leads Men's Soccer to 3-1 victory in OAC opener against Muskingum

Nate Bascom

By Patrick Massara

| Box Score |

ADA — Freshman Nate Bascom led the way for the Ohio Northern men’s soccer team with two goals as it opened Ohio Athletic Conference play Saturday by defeating Muskingum 3-1 at ONU Soccer Field.

ONU moves to 10-2 overall and 1-0 in the OAC on the year, while the Muskies fall to 3-7 overall and 0-1 in the OAC.

The game was scoreless until the 31:49 mark in the first half when Muskingum put in an own goal to give the Polar Bears a 1-0 lead.

The play began off of a Geoff Smith shot that the Muskies could not handle and fumbled the ball into their own net.

Bascom extended the lead in the second half for ONU to 2-0 as he recieved a Chaz McCullah through ball and took beat his defender just enough to rip off a shot to score at the 60:28 mark.

The assist is McCullah’s fourth on the season.

At the 84:56 mark, freshman Christian Huelsman sent in a corner kick for ONU in which Bascom finished off the play by scoring his seventh goal of the season.

Huelsman’s assist is his third on the year and extends his OAC-leading point total to 21 on the season.

With a few minutes left in the game, John Molnar of Muskingum ended the Polar Bear’s shutout.

Drew Untied sent a shot into the box where it was deflected out just enough for Molnar to send it into the bottom left corner of the goal at 87:55.

The goal is Molnar’s third this year while United’s assist is his first this season.

Junior Aaron Collins had four saves for ONU to give him 44 on the year.

This is ONU’s first conference-opening win since 2005.

“Today was a big win for our team,” said head coach Brent Ridenour. “Every conference game counts and begining with a win is always a good start.”

The Polar Bears continues OAC play Wednesday as they travel to Capital for a 4 pm match.