Perkins hat trick leads No. 18 Men's Soccer to wild 5-4 overtime victory over Heidelberg
By: Andrew Korba
ADA -- Senior Stephen Perkins scored three goals, including the game winner 4:36 into the first overtime, to lead the No. 18 Ohio Northern men's soccer team to a 5-4 overtime win over Heidelberg at Kerscher Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
The Polar Bears improve to 13-3-0 and remain second in the OAC with a 5-1-0 mark, while the Student Princes fall to 9-5-0, 3-3-0.
Sophomore Keegan Ross also added two goals for ONU.
Perkins game winner came off of a corner kick.
Senior Jeremy Barnes sent the ball to the far post.
Perkins beat his defender and headed the ball into the lower right corner to give Northern the win.
"Jeremy put a good ball into the box," said Perkins. "I was able to break from my defender and get open to put it in."
Heidelberg jumped out to a 2-0 lead at halftime, scoring goals in the 24th and 32nd minute.
The Polar Bears were able to get on the board at the 49:24 mark.
Sophomore Shintaroh Itoh fired a shot that was stopped by the Heidelberg goalie.
But Ross was right there to knock in the rebound to cut the ONU deficit to 2-1.
Heidelberg answered back at the 54:00 minute mark, when Chris Koczak scored his second goal of the afternoon, to push its lead back to 3-1.
Just over a minute later, Northern would get another goal to cut the HU lead to 3-2.
Barnes fired a free kick from just outside the box that hit the crossbar and Perkins was right there to knock in the rebound for his first goal of the match.
The Student Princes came right back in the 65th minute when Ryan Homoki scored to make it 4-2.
Perkins would send a ball over the defense that Ross chased down and beat the drawn out goalkeeper, to cut the Heidelberg lead to 4-3 in the 72nd minute.
At the 83:57 mark, Perkins took a pass from senior Ken Wachtel and beat the keeper to tie the match at 4-4.
ONU would then score in the first overtime to get the victory.
"Heidelberg is an excellent team," said head coach Brent Ridenour. "We did not play very well defensively today. But we were able to get some good chances on the offensive side and outscore them."
Freshman goalie Evan Bader (13-3-0) made four saves for Northern.
Matthew Stevens (9-5-0) had five saves for the Heidelberg.
The Polar Bears owned a 19-18 advantage in shots and a 11-3 edge in corner kicks.
"This is the second time in three games that we have overcome a two goal deficit in the second half," added Ridenour. "We know we have the capability to go out there and give ourselves a chance to win every match."
Ohio Northern will return to action on Saturday, when it travels to face OAC leader No. 22 John Carroll at 7 pm.