Men's Soccer and Capital tie in OAC Tournament Championship, but Crusaders win title on PKs

Greg Stawicki

By Patrick Massara

| Box Score | Tournament Site |

ADA - In the Ohio Athletic Conference Finals, the Ohio Northern men’s soccer team tied Capital 2-2 but lost in penalty kicks 2-1 Saturday afternoon at the ONU Soccer Field.

The win gives the Crusaders their first conference tournament championship and they earn the conference’s automatic birth to the NCAA tournament, also the first in the school’s history.

The Polar Bears are now 15-3-3 overall while Capital moves to 16-4-2 overall on the season.

Ohio Northern scored the match’s first goal at the 25:41 mark when defender Dan Schade crossed the ball into the penalty box to sophomore Greg Stawicki who finished right in front of the goalkeeper.

ONU scored again shortly after for a 2-0 advantage when sophomore Christian Huelsman scored from about 20 yards out off of a Stawicki assist at the 31:59 mark.

The lead was cut in half at the 65:38 mark when Capital’s Jeremy Sampson took a shot and had it deflected in by Ian Warmbrodt right in front of the goal.

Warmbrodt scored again at the 69:21 mark when he ripped a shot from the top of the box to bring the score even at 2-2.

After two scoreless overtime periods, the match went to penalty kicks.

CU goalkeeper Daren Scarberry and ONU keeper Mac Church saved both of the opposing team’s shots in the first round.

After a Scarberry save, Senior Robbie Breen put CU up 1-0 when he scored in the bottom left of the goal.

Scarberry saved the next shot as well and senior Josh Thaboune gave CU a 2-0 advantage.

Senior Jimmy Matuszak followed that with a goal of his own to keep the Polar Bears alive as he beat Scarberry in the top left portion of the goal.

While Church saved the next shot, Scarberry was able to save a shot from Huelsman to end the match.

Capital gets an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, but ONU will wait and see whether it will earn an at-large invitation.