Aug. 31, 2007

By Gary Petit

DANVILLE, Ky. — The Ohio Northern men’s soccer team opened its 2007 season with a 4-3 loss at Centre (Ky.) Friday night at the Centre Soccer Complex.

The Polar Bears (0-1) fell behind early as the Colonels (1-0) Matt Hoskins scored just 3:36 into the game. Centre’s Brandon Gish got into the scoring column with two goals late in the first, and the Colonels took a 3-0 lead into halftime.

In the second half, senior captain Zach Huffman got ONU on the board as he finished a nice cross from junior Ben Jackson to make the score 3-1 at in the 55th minute.

Junior midfielder Adam Ross then took a pass from Dan Otanicar and scored from 30 yards away to bring the Bears within one at 3-2 with just over 20 minutes remaining.

Centre seemed to have put the gave away at the 79:25 mark, when Eric Brown scored hi first goal of the year to put Centre out in front 4-2.

Otanicar answered with a header off of a free kick from Jackson in the 86th minute to again pull with one at 4-3, but ONU could not find the equalizer in the closing minutes.

Freshman David Esser got the start in goal tonight for ONU and recorded four saves.

The Polar Bears return to action Saturday at NAIA-foe Georgetown (Ky.) at 1 pm.