Men’s Soccer: Ohio Northern (11-6-3 Overall) at #9 Otterbein (13-0-4 Overall) – OAC Tournament Semifinals
Thursday, November 4, 2021, 3 p.m. — Memorial Stadium, Westerville, Ohio
Thursday's Preview: Thursday's contest pits No. 4 seed Ohio Northern against No. 2 seed Otterbein in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals … The other semifinal features No. 6 seed Capital at No. 1 seed John Carroll … The winners of the semifinal games will play for the championship on Saturday, which will be hosted by the highest remaining seed … The Polar Bears are aiming for their eighth OAC Tournament title and first since 2015 … ONU tied Otterbein 2-2 during the teams' regular-season meeting on Oct. 27, getting goals from seniors Seth Gundlach and Levi King … Northern is coming off Tuesday's 4-0 win over No. 5 seed Marietta in the quarterfinals, getting 2 goals from freshman Ryan Sommerfeld and one each from Gundlach and senior Bryan Kern ... ONU out-shot Marietta 26-5 ... Gundlach has scored 5 goals in the past 4 games … 16 different players have scored a goal for ONU this season … Northern has outscored its opponents 41-19 with 10 shutouts … Gundlach and freshman Trevor Tabb lead the Polar Bears with 8 goals each, which is tied for third in the OAC … King leads the team in assists with 8, which ranks second in the OAC, and in points with 20, which is fourth in the OAC … Gundlach (19) and Tabb (16) rank second and third, respectively, on the team in points … Kern (59) and Gundlach (54) lead the OAC in shots ... Senior goalkeeper John Lombardo has registered 9 shutouts, 58 saves, a .753 save percentage and a GAA of 0.97 … Lombardo leads the OAC in shutouts, is tied for third in GAA and is fourth in saves … Lombardo's 25 career shutouts rank third all-time at ONU, and his 201 career saves rank eighth in program history … No. 9 Otterbein enters Thursday's match coming off Saturday's 2-1 win at Capital in its regular-season finale … Otterbein completed the first undefeated regular season in program history at 13-0-4 overall and 7-0-2 against OAC opponents … As the No. 2 seed, the Cardinals earned a bye into the semifinals of the OAC Tournament … OU is 4-0-3 at home and has outscored opponents 45-16 with 8 shutouts on the season … Sophomore Drew Holman and junior Coby Stover scored in the 2-2 draw with ONU earlier this season … 6 players have double-digit point totals on the season … Junior Will Isaac leads the OAC in goals (10), assists (10) and points (30) and ranks fourth in shots (50) … Junior Gabe Sharrock ranks third in the OAC in points (21) and is tied for third in goals (8) … Senior goalkeeper Andrew McIlvoy has started 16 games for the Cardinals and is third in the OAC in save percentage (.771), tied for third in GAA (0.97) and fifth in saves (54).
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Goals | Assists | Points | Saves | GAA | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Tabb | 8 | 1. | King | 8 | 1. | King | 20 | 1. | Lombardo | 58 | 1. | Ellis | 0.00 | ||||
| Gundlach | 8 | 2. | Locke | 5 | 2. | Gundlach | 19 | 2. | Ellis | 1 | 2. | Lombardo | 0.97 | |||||
| 3. | King | 6 | 3. | 3 tied | 3 | 3. | Tabb | 16 |
Series Record: Ohio Northern trails the all-time series with Otterbein by a 17-23-2 margin, including 7-13-1 in Westerville and 1-0-0 in the OAC Tournament … The teams last met on Oct. 27 in a game that resulted in a 2-2 tie in Westerville.
Head Coach Chris Matejka: Matejka is in his third season with the ONU men's soccer program … He has an overall coaching record of 30-16-7, a .610 win percentage.