Men's soccer wins thriller on Senior Day

The Defiance men's soccer team celebrated Senior Day against Earlham on Wednesday afternoon with a thrilling 3-2 victory over the Quakers. Fittingly, Defiance's seniors contributed significantly to the win with Chase Stiner recording a goal and an assist and Jeremy Jimenez netting the game-winning goal late in the second half. Prior to the game Defiance recognized seniors Jacob Rygula, Darrien Brooks, Eli Rogers, Anthony Kostecki, Jimenez, Juan Olvera, Stiner, Joshua Cooney, Matt Stefan, and Gabe Curell.

The Basics

• Records: Defiance (9-11, 4-5), Earlham (0-16, 0-9)
• Location: Justin F. Coressel Stadium - Defiance, Ohio
• Attendance: 175

Inside the Numbers

• Stiner led the Yellow Jackets with five shots followed by junior Noah Svanberg with four. Each player had two shots on goal.
• Junior Joshua Maurer took two shots in the match.
• Junior Orry Killam earned his sixth win of the season in goal, making three saves.
• Akire Wadkins and Kevin Arias each had four shots for the Quakers.
• Braden Guinn and Conner Kimball also chipped in with two shots apiece.
• The Quakers used two goalies in the contest with Tyler Smith playing the first half and Duncan Jordahl getting saddled with the loss for allowing two second-half goals.

The Difference

• The Quakers took an early lead in the fifth minute when Guinn scored a goal off a shot by Wadkins that struck the post.
• The Yellow Jackets answered less than a minute later with a strike from Stiner to tie the game at 1-1.
• The teams remained tied for the rest of the half thanks in part to two back-to-back saves by Killam on Wadkins in the 11th minute.
• Svanberg broke the tie in the 62nd minute by scoring off his own blocked shot to give Defiance a 2-1 lead. 
• Wadkins tied that game in the 74th minute.
• On the third of back-to-back-to-back corner kicks for the Yellow Jackets Steiner's kick found its way to Jimenez who was able to head it past the Earlham keeper for the game-winning goal.

Records and Notes

• Rygula extended his team record for career games played to 75.
• Svanberg's goal was the 11th of his career, tying him for 10th in team history.
• The goal also gives him 15 on the season, tied for 10th most in a season in team history.

Up Next

• The Yellow Jackets finish the regular season with a 9-11 overall record and a 4-5 record in HCAC play. They will await the results from the remaining HCAC games to see if they will advance to the conference tournament.