Men’s Soccer hands Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) first loss of season in overtime thriller

By Wes Mayberry

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — After seeing a victory slip from its grasp in the waning minutes of regulation, the Ohio Northern men's soccer team wasted little time scoring in the overtime session for a 3-2 win at Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) at CMU Soccer Field on Saturday afternoon.

A goal from senior Seth Gundlach (Wilmington) just under three minutes into the 10-minute overtime period gave the Polar Bears (4-2-1 overall) the victory while handing the Tartans (4-1-1 overall) their first loss of the season.

Northern's two goals in regulation came from freshmen Trevor Tabb (Toledo/Springfield) and Tanner Locke (Canton, Mich./Salem).

Senior Levi King (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central) tallied two assists in the game to go with one each from Gundlach, junior Jacob Westerkamp (Beavercreek) and senior Matt Studenic (Wadsworth), who assisted on the game-winner.

Tabb scored his team-leading fourth goal of the season 11:17 into Saturday's game on assists from King and Gundlach.

But the Tartans made it 1-all in the 21^st minute on a goal from William Rabon assisted by Kuba Yiadom.

The Polar Bears had an answer, though, going into halftime up 2-1 after Locke found the back of the net in the 28^th minute on assists from Westerkamp and King.

That score held until the very late stages of regulation when Carnegie's Josh Baugh got a penalty kick past ONU senior goalkeeper John Lombardo (Solon) with under four minutes remaining to knot the score at 2-all and eventually force overtime.

On a free kick to the back post, Gundlach retreated to the goal line and turned his body for a header over the goalkeeper to the upper far post for the game-winning goal.

The Polar Bears out-shot the Tartans 15-6 in the game but held a much slimmer 4-3 edge in shots on goal and 10-8 advantage in corner kicks. Each team's goalkeeper tallied one save.

Next up for the Polar Bears is a home game against Hanover (Ind.) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Kerscher Stadium.