ADA — Roanoke (Va.) scored three first half goals and then held on for a 3-2 victory over the Ohio Northern men’s soccer team in the final game of the 15th annual ONU Adidas Classic Sunday afternoon.

With the win, the Maroons improve to 3-2 on the season while the Polar Bears lose at home for the first time since Sept. 27, 2005, and fall to 2-3 on the year.

Roanoke opened the scoring in the first half when Eric Eversole took a pass from Taylor Johnston and beat ONU keeper David Esser from eight yards out to give the Maroons a 1-0 lead at the 16:05 mark.

Not quite ten minutes later, Roanoke’s Jon Marc Winchester fired a shot from point blank range, that Esser made the initial save, but the ball hit the crossbar and caromed right back to Winchester who knocked it in the back of the net for a 2-0 Roanoke lead.

The Polar Bears would respond just five minutes later when sophomore Tyler Johnston finished a through ball from freshman Chaz McCullah from six yards out for his second goal of the weekend and pulled ONU to within one at 2-1.

The Maroon’s Shamon Douglas came off the bench midway through the first half and would score Roanoke’s third goal at the 43:30 mark as he headed in a throw in from Eversole and Roanoke would take a 3-1 lead into halftime.

With 20 minutes to go in the game, ONU’s Ben Tarkany flicked a pass to Dan Otanicar, who then touched it to Brian Bolibrzuch, and Bolibrzuch ripped a shot from just inside the box that beat the keeper and brought the Polar Bears closer at 3-2. The goal was Bolibrzuch’s third of the season.

Roanoke however, would spoil every Polar Bear threat down the stretch and hold on for a 3-2 win.

Esser allowed three goals and made six saves, while the duo of Austin Rose and Adam Thompson made six saves and each allowed one goal.

The shots were even at 14 a piece whole Roanoke attempted two more corner kicks.

“We just have to keep improving,” said head coach Brent Ridenour. “We didn’t play as well as we would have liked today but its a long season and we just need to continue to get better every game.”

In the first game of the day, SUNY-Brockport defeated Mt. St. Joseph 2-0 to win the ONU Adidas tournament title with a perfect 2-0 record. This was the first time Brockport has competed in the tournament.

“I’d like to congratulate SUNY-Brockport,” said Ridenour. “They played a good tournament and got two nice wins.”

ONU will return to action this Tuesday when they travel to Defiance for a non-conference matchup at 4 pm before returning home to host the OAC-MIAA Shootout next weekend.