Senior Patrick Sabol leads No. 7 Men's Soccer to 9-0 victory over Defiance

By Caleb Scott

ADA -- Senior Patrick Sabol led the No. 7-ranked Ohio Northern men's soccer team as it defeated area-rival Defiance 9-0 Wednesday evening at Kerscher Stadium.

The Polar Bears improve to 8-0-1 overall, while the Yellow Jackets fall to 2-4-1.

In all, eight different Ohio Northern players scored during the 9-0 route.

Sabol scored two goals and added an assist to lead Northern.

Seniors Grant Allbritten, Tommy Troy, Austin Horton, Dustin Lorenzo, Anthony Clark and Matt Kinkopf and sophomore Joseph Schulte each scored for Northern.

After a slow start, Northern would find its stride in the 20th minute as Sabol received a cross from senior David Janusz and beat the DC keeper to make it 1-0.

After Kinkopf's shot was saved by the DC keeper, Allbritten was able to gather the rebound and find the back of the net to make it 2-0 in the 26th minute.

Northern would strike again in the 34th minute as senior Nathan Libertowski set Troy up just outside the 8-yard box and Troy one touched it in to push the lead to 3-0.

Schulte would gather a corner kick from freshman Jimmy Walkinshaw in the 40th minute and beat the DC keeper with a header to push the lead to 4-0 at the intermission.

"I was really happy with the way we came out tonight," said head coach Brent Ridenour. "We have been talking to our guys about starting fast and we really did that in the first half."

Northern wasted no time adding to its lead in the second half as Horton capitalized off of a pass from Kinkopf in 46th minute to extend the lead to 5-0.

Sabol would score his second goal of the evening after junior Dakota Swisher played a cross and Janusz was able to one touch it to Sabol and make it 6-0 in the 53rd minute.

In the 61st minute, Lorenzo would receive a pass from Sabol and find the back of the net to push the lead to 7-0.

Kinkopf would get in on the action after he was able to beat the DC keeper off of a PK and make it 8-0.

Clark was able to seal the 9-0 victory in the 83rd minute as he played a pass from Walkinshaw and capitalized.

Junior Dean McNeil earned the victory in the goal for Northern and improved to 8-0-1 on the year. 

McNeil posted his sixth shutout of the season and 21st of his career.

"Our defense continues to play great," said Ridenour. "This team really makes it tough for opponents to score the ball."

Northern will return to action Saturday as they travel to Anderson (Ind.) to take on the Ravens at 2 pm.