Barnes, Bader lead No. 16 Men's Soccer past Wilmington 1-0

By: Andrew Korba

ADA -- Senior Jeremy Barnes scored his sixth goal of the season and freshman Evan Bader recorded his OAC leading seventh shutout, to lead the No. 16 Ohio Northern men's soccer team to a 1-0 win over Wilmington on Tuesday afternoon at Kerscher Stadium.

The Polar Bears improve to 15-3-0 on the season and 7-1-0 in OAC play, while the Quakers fall to 6-12-1, 3-5-0.

The win clinches a first round bye for ONU in the OAC Tournament, which begins on Nov. 4.

Northern can clinch a share of the OAC regular season title, with a victory over Muskingum at Kerscher Stadium on Friday at 4 pm.

The teams played a scoreless first half, with Wilmington owning a 7-5 advantage in shots.

The Polar Bears began to put some pressure on early in the second half.

Freshman Austin Horton broke free and fired a shot in the 50th minute, but it sailed wide.

Barnes had a chance minutes later, but his shot went high.

In the 59th minute, Martin Holmquist put a header towards the lower right for WC, but Bader made a diving stop to keep the match tied.

Barnes put ONU in front at the 76:40 mark, stealing the ball and dribbling into the box and beating the keeper.

Just a minute later, the Quakers look like they would tie the match.

Daniel Wicks fired a shot past the drawn out Bader in the 78th minute, but senior Ken Wachtel sprinted in and knocked the ball away before it could cross the goal crease.

An ensuing shot by Wilmington sailed high.

"Our defense won the match for us today," said head coach Brent Ridenour. "Wilmington is a good team who is much better than their record. Our back four and goalkeeping were outstanding and led us to the win."

Bader finished the match with three saves to pick up his 15th win of the season.

Anton Niklasson (6-11-1) made six saves in goal for Wilmington.

The Quakers finished with 15 shots and Northern ended with 13.

The Polar Bears owned a 8-2 edge in corner kicks.