WHEELING, W.Va. (Oct. 18) - The Wheeling Jesuit University men's soccer team was dealt a 2-1 overtime loss by Urbana Thursday night in a Mountain East Conference (MEC) contest at Bishop Schmitt Field.
The loss drops the Cardinals to 8-4-2 overall and 7-4 (21 points) in the MEC. Meanwhile, the Blue Knights draw even with Wheeling Jesuit in the conference standings at 6-2-3 (21 points), 7-4-3 overall this season.
Neither team found the back of the net in the first half. Despite a combined 18 shots attempted, only three for each side were on-goal and none challenged either team's goalkeeper. Wheeling Jesuit's best opportunity came in the 42nd-minute when sophomore
Alvaro Garrido (Sevilla, Spain) had a header off of a corner kick sail high.
Urbana struck quickly in the second half. Blue Knights' forward Jake Wischmeier got behind the Cardinal backfield and sent a low strike from left to right into the bottom corner of the net to make the score 1-0 in the 48th-minute.
The pace of the match picked up in the final 10 minutes. Urbana was forced to play from the 84th-minute on a man-down when a second yellow card was issued to a Blue Knights midfielder. A hand-ball in the box during the 86th-minute allowed senior
Martin Minuzzi (Cardoba, Argentina/Nazareth) to attempt a penalty-kick, which he converted to even the score at 1-1 and send the match into an extra session.
The Blue Knights managed to gain the upper hand less than five minutes into overtime on a free-kick that was headed off of the cross bar and into the net, granting Urbana crucial points in the conference standings.
Freshman goalkeeper
Jonathan Bosmyr (Joenkoeping, Sweeden/Erik Dahlbergs) made five saves in the match and was dealt his first-career loss in net.
Wheeling Jesuit held a 22-to-13 advantage in shots, but only an 8-to-7 edge in shots on-goal. The Cardinals also were granted nine corner kicks, compared to just three for Urbana.
The Cardinals will travel to Athens, West Virginia on Sunday, October 21 to take on Concord in a MEC match at 3:30 p.m.
