No. 3 Men's Soccer celebrates Senior Night in style with Hat Trick, school record scoring mark

By Tim Glon

ADA — The No. 3-ranked Ohio Northern men's soccer team celebrated Senior Night in style with a 7-1 victory over Baldwin Wallace on Tuesday evening at Kerscher Stadium.

The Polar Bears remain undefeated on the season at 16-0-3 overall and are 6-0-2 in Ohio Athletic Conference action, while the Yellow Jackets fall to 6-12-0, 3-5-0.

Seniors David Janusz (Oregonia/Lebanon) and Matt Kinkopf (Hamilton/Cincinnati Christian) had career days to lead ONU.

Janusz scored the first two Polar Bear goals and ended the day with his first career Hat Trick with goals in the 6th, 15th and 51st minutes to give him 12 goals on the season.

Kinkopf became Ohio Northern's all-time career goal scoring leader with the 56th and 57th goals of his career just 15 minutes apart in the first half.

He broke the previous school record of 56 set by Nate Bascom from 2008-12 and current ONU head coach Brent Ridenour from 1991-94.

He now has an OAC-leading 16 goals on the year and added an assist in the match to extend his OAC-best total to 15. He also leads the OAC with 47 points.

The Polar Bears led 4-0 at halftime and added two goals in the first eight minutes of the second half to go up 6-0.

Junior Grant Cayot (Roanoke, Ind./Blackhawk Christian) scored off a free kick in the 53rd minute to make it 6-0 and senior Tommy Troy (Toledo/Central Catholic) scored in the 83rd minute to wrap up the scoring.

Ohio Northern celebrated its 14 seniors in a post-match ceremony.

"I'm so happy for our seniors, this was a great way for them to celebrate Senior Night," Ridenour said. "It was great to see David get the Hat Trick and for Matt to break the scoring record at home. Getting it done in the first half was nice. We got all of our players into the game and hopefully we can continue our momentum the rest of the season."

Northern out-shot Baldwin Wallace 31-10, including an 18-2 advantage in the first half, and had 21 shots on goal in the contest.

The Polar Bears will wrap up their regular season on Friday afternoon with a 3:30 pm contest at Marietta.

Ohio Northern has clinched a first round bye in next week's OAC Tournament with 20 points on six wins and two ties. John Carroll leads the league with 22 points on seven wins and a tie with ONU.

The Polar Bears need a victory at Marietta and a loss or tie by John Carroll at Muskingum next Saturday to claim at least a share of the OAC Regular Season crown.