Zebrak’s first career goal not enough as Men’s Soccer falls 2-1 at John Carroll in overtime

By Wes Mayberry

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS — The Ohio Northern men's soccer team fell 2-1 to John Carroll in overtime on Saturday night at Don Shula Stadium.

The loss dropped the Polar Bears to 7-6-2 overall and 2-3-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference while improving the Blue Streaks to 7-3-3, 4-0-1.

ONU's lone goal came courtesy of freshman Noah Zebrak (Cleveland/St. Ignatius) and was the first of his collegiate career.

Benjamin Hryszko scored the game-winning goal for JCU with 2:05 remaining in the overtime period on an assist from Nicholas Graeca.

Graeca scored the Blue Streaks' goal in regulation on an assist from Hryszko.

Zebrak gave Ohio Northern a 1-0 lead 16:10 into the game, scoring a goal on an assist from senior Levi King (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central).

The Polar Bears took that 1-0 lead into halftime, but John Carroll evened the score on Graeca's goal with 14:38 left in regulation.

JCU attempted five shots and had two corner kicks over the final seven minutes of regulation but was unable to capitalize, sending the game to overtime.

With the clock ticking down toward sending the game to a second overtime, Hryszko sent a shot past ONU senior goalkeeper John Lombardo (Solon) in the lower-left part of the goal for the game-winning score.

Lombardo finished with six saves in the game, while Connor Robinson tallied five saves for JCU.

Senior Seth Gundlach (Wilmington) paced ONU in shots with four.

Graeca and Hryszko combined for 15 shots for JCU with eight and seven, respectively.

The Blue Streaks out-shot ONU by a 28-10 margin and finished with a 9-3 edge in corner kicks.

The Polar Bears return to action on Wednesday at 7 p.m. when they host Heidelberg.