Men’s Soccer gets 4-0 win at Muskingum

By Wes Mayberry

NEW CONCORD — The Ohio Northern men's soccer team made easy work of Muskingum on Saturday night, cruising to a 4-0 victory on the strength of four first-half goals at North Turf Field.

The victory improves the Polar Bears to 7-4-2 overall and 2-1-0 in Ohio Athletic Conference play while dropping Muskingum to 3-9-0, 0-3-0.

Senior Levi King (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central) tallied a pair of goals to lead the way for ONU.

Northern's other two goals came courtesy of freshmen Sam McKee (Mason) and Trevor Tabb (Toledo/Springfield).

Freshman Tanner Locke (Canton, Mich./Salem) registered two assists in the game, and senior Seth Gundlach (Wilmington) added one of his own.

Senior John Lombardo (Solon) made three saves in registering his fifth shutout of the season for ONU.

With 21 career shutouts, Lombardo is now just one away from tying Aaron Collins for third place on the program's all-time leaderboard in that category.

ONU wasted little time getting on the scoreboard Saturday, as McKee tallied his first goal of the season on an assist from Locke just 3:23 into the game.

King increased the lead to 2-0, scoring on assists from Gundlach and Locke with 14:33 gone in the first half.

King added another goal less than four minutes later, giving him five on the season and putting ONU up 3-0.

Tabb capped the scoring with 8:37 left in the opening half, tallying his team-high eighth goal of the season and sending ONU into the intermission leading 4-0.

Neither team scored in the second half, and ONU came away with its 17th straight victory over Muskingum.

The Polar Bears out-shot the Fighting Muskies 36-10 and finished with 19 shots on goal while holding a 14-4 edge in corner kicks.

ONU attempted 15 shots in the first half and 21 in the second, and King and senior Bryan Kern (Rocky River) paced ONU in shots with four each.

Bailey Adams and Ryan Peck led MU in shots with three each, and goalkeeper Zach Marchesano made 14 saves.

Next up for the Polar Bears is a 7 p.m. home match with Wilmington on Wednesday at Kerscher Stadium.