Otanicar nets a goal and Ridenour gets 150th coaching victory as Men's Soccer stops Capital 4-1

Dan Otanicar

By Patrick Massara

| Box Score |

ADA – Dan Otanicar scored a goal and Ohio Northern head coach Brent Ridenour earned his 150^th career victory with the men’s soccer team as the Polar Bears defeated the two-time defending regular season champion Capital 4-1 Tuesday afternoon at the ONU Soccer Field.

Ridenour is the second men’s soccer coach to reach the 150-win plateau and is 13 wins shy of tying Dr. Amar Bhattacharya for the most in program’s history.

The Polar Bears are now 8-3-1 overall and 2-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Crusaders fall to 9-4 overall and 1-1 in the OAC.

Ohio Northern earned its first goal when Otanicar served a long throw in right in front of the keeper. After a Northern player missed the header it attempt, the ball skipped off the head of a Capital defender and past the goalkeeper for an own goal.

Forward Greg Stawicki increased the lead to 2-0 just before halftime at the 43:00 mark as he scored on a rebound off of a Capital defender.

At 60:05, senior defender Dan Schade passed the ball to Otanicar who proceeded to beat the keeper in the top right corner of the goal for his eight goal of the season.

Stawicki scored his seventh goal of the year at 77:45 to give ONU a 4-0 advantage as he put it in the net off of a missed shot.

Capital forward Steven McCarthy added his OAC-leading 17th goal of the season soon after at the 78:07 mark for the only Crusaders’ goal of the game.

“Today was a great win over a really good team,” Ridenour said. “The first goal helped us to gain an early advantage and we were able to capitalize on it. We were lucky to catch them on an off day and earn a strong OAC victory.”

Ohio Northern took 13 corner kicks compared to the Crusaders’ three.

The Polar Bears’ next match is on Saturday as they face Mount Union 1 pm at the ONU Soccer Field.