Tigers Drop Neutral Site Decision To Cedarville

XENIA, Ohio — The Wittenberg men's soccer team took a 1-1 tie into halftime against Cedarville University at the Athletes In Action sports complex, but the Yellow Jackets outscored the Tigers 2-1 in the second period to send Wittenberg to a 4-5-1 overall record.

Senior Declan McBride (Surrey, England/Tasis) put the Tigers on top early in the match, turning a header into the far corner of the Cedarville on a restart kick by junior Marshall Rowland (Pewee Valley, Ky./South Oldham) in the third minute. The Yellow Jackets answered in the 39th minute to even the score heading into halftime.

Twelve minutes into the second, Wittenberg put Cedarville on top for the first time in the match with an own goal while attempting to clear the ball out of the goal area. Only 1:08 later, however, the Tigers knotted the score at 2-2 when freshman Dan LeMelle (Springfield, Ohio/Catholic Central) tallied his first goal of the season on a corner kick by Rowland.

In the 70th minute, Cedarville's Zack Gatlin struck a line drive inside the right post from 25 yards out for the game winner.

The Tigers, held largely in check offensively during the first half with three shots, levied 12 shots at the Cedarville net in the second period. On the other side, senior goalkeeper Michael Lambeck (Dublin, Ohio/Coffman) faced a total of 23 Yellow Jacket shots, 10 of them on goal, making six saves in the process. Each goalkeeper was helped out with a team save in the match.

The match was moved from 7 p.m. at Cedarville to 5:30 p.m. at the Athletes In Action complex in Xenia due to poor field conditions at Cedarville. Wittenberg still leads the all-time series, which has consisted of one match every season since 1971 except in 1984 and 1999, with a mark of 23-16-1 since the first match in 1967.

The Tigers return home to face Oberlin at Edwards-Maurer Field on Saturday, Oct. 1.

John Strawn '07