Men's Soccer opens Ohio Athletic Conference play with 2-1 win over No. 9 Mount Union

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's soccer team opened Ohio Athletic Conference play with a 2-1 win over No. 9 Mount Union on Saturday afternoon.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (5-4-1 overall, 1-0-0 OAC), Mount Union (9-1-0 overall, 0-1-0 OAC)
• Venue: Kerscher Stadium — Ada, Ohio

The Match

• The Purple Raiders opened the scoring in the 23rd minute with a penalty kick goal from Carter Hancock.
• Mount Union led 1-0 at halftime.
• ONU tied the score with a goal from junior Will Shaffer (Galena/St. Francis DeSales) in the 52nd minute on assists from junior Ryan Sommerfeld (Dublin/Coffman) and freshman Colin Gottron (Dayton/Centerville).
• Junior Colby Stolph (Liberty Township/Badin) scored what proved to be the game-winning goal for ONU in the 70th minute when his shot from just inside the goal box found its way past the UMU goalkeeper and into the back left corner of the goal. Sophomore Gage Foster (Mason) assisted the goal.
• Shaffer led ONU with five shots in the game.
• The Polar Bears out-shot the Purple Raiders 19-10 in the game and had an 8-5 edge in corner kicks.

Highlight

• Stolph finds the back of the net in the 70th minute:

Notables

• This marked Mount Union's first loss of the 2023 season.
• The Polar Bears won their OAC opener for the second straight season.
• ONU is now 31-13-6 all time against UMU and has won five straight games in the series.
• Shaffer's goal was his fifth of the season and eighth of his career. He now has a team-best five goals and 10 points this season.
• Stolph's goal was the first of his career.
• ONU junior goalkeeper Lucas Hickey (Conroe, Tex./OAk Ridge) is now 11-5-2 in his career in goal.
• Fifth-year head coach Chris Matejka is now 48-25-13 at ONU.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears return to action on Wednesday hosting OAC foe Otterbein at 7 p.m.