GEORGETOWN, Ky. (Men's Soccer) – The Shawnee State men's soccer team showed its offensive strength on Saturday evening by outshooting host Georgetown via a 19-10 tally and grabbed a great effort in goal from defenseman-turned-goalkeeper in Cody Hartong (SO/Creston, Ohio).
However, after both teams battled to a scoreless tie through the first 79 minutes of play, the final 11 minutes would not go in the direction that the Bears (5-8, 2-2 Mid-South) were hoping for as the Tigers (3-8, 2-4 Mid-South) scored two late second-half goals to obtain a 2-0 victory at Toyota Stadium in Georgetown, Ky.
On the evening, Shawnee State held the shot advantage throughout the entire contest as the Bears put 19 shots up – including 14 of them in the first half of play by itself – en route to a nine-shot advantage over Georgetown.
Despite the litany of attempts by Shawnee State to grab control of the contest, the Bears were not able to do so as the offensive attack was called offsides 10 times during the duration of the contest, in comparison to the Tigers' 1 offside call.
As a result, the Shawnee State offense struggled to find the finishing touch at the goal.
Even though the Bears outshot the Tigers by a 10-2 tally with over 30 minutes gone in the first half, Shawnee State was stopped in its tracks by either goalkeeper Patrick Schwarz or the Georgetown defense.
In the 33rd minute, it seemed as if Chris Wiget (SR/Piketon, Ohio) had finally broken through for the Bears as the senior blasted a shot past Schwarz to seemingly give the Bears a 1-0 advantage at the 33:13 mark. The goal, however, was negated as an offside call again took a scoring opportunity away from Shawnee State.
Throughout the remainder of the first half, the Bears never relented in their offensive attack as Shawnee State put up five more shots within the final 10 minutes of the first half.
In each opportunity, however, the Bears were denied. Wiget's final shot to end the half glanced off of the crossbar off of a rebound, after the senior's first attempt with 40 seconds to play was saved by Schwarz once more. As a result, both teams headed to the halftime break without striking in the scoring column.
Both teams' scoring opportunities would be limited in the second half behind the play of both backlines as well as the play of Hartong and Schwarz, with the former admirably hopping into the goalkeeper slot and keeping the Georgetown attack off of the scoreboard.
Unfortunately for the Bears, it was not to be.
In the 79th minute, Hartong came out of his goalkeeping position to play a ball that was thrown in by J.T. Stephens. In coming out to punch the ball away, however, the sophomore missed, and a waiting Trent Boyd put the ball through on an open-net goal to give the Tigers a 1-0 advantage at the 79:29 mark.
Less than five minutes later, Stephens would strike again, this time on the shooting end, as the sophomore midfielder split the Shawnee State defense to turn a game that was surely heading to extra time into a 2-0 Georgetown advantage with less than six minutes remaining in the contest.
The Bears tried frantically over the final five minutes to get something going on the Tigers' end for a chance to make a quick two-goal rally.
However, a shot by Caspar Nolte (FR/Germantown, Ohio) at the 87:57 mark was saved by Schwarz, and a shot with 1:05 remaining in the contest by Nick Dowdell (SR/New London, Ohio) sailed high as Shawnee State could not overcome the late two-goal deficit.
Offensively, the Bears were led by Nolte, who recorded three shots, including two on goal. Matyas Krivan (FR/Prague, Czech Republic) and Martyn Sayer (JR/Liverpool, England) each added three additional shots while Wiget and Avery Patton (SR/Pickerington, Ohio) were marked for a pair of shots apiece. All four players had at least one shot on goal.
Defensively, Hartong would record four saves in six chances for Shawnee State in the Creston, Ohio native's first appearance as a goalkeeper.
Shawnee State will return home for each of the next two weekends as the Bears will host two Mid-South Conference (MSC) opponents ranked in the NAIA's Top 25 Poll in No. 11 Lindsey Wilson and No. 13 Cumberland (Tenn.).
The first of those contests, which will come against the Blue Raiders, is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17 at the Shawnee Turf.
