The Wilmington College men's soccer team opened Ohio Athletic Conference play with a 3-0 home loss to John Carroll Saturday on Townsend Field in Williams Stadium.
"It's a lousy loss, and I want to see how this team responds," said Wilmington head coach Bud Lewis. "It's time we show up. We are about to play one of the top teams in Ohio, which is Capital. It's time for us to show up. Enough is enough. If we have any intentions of being a contender we have to show up."
It marks the fourth straight shutout loss as Wilmington has been outscored 8-0 in those contests. However, the offense looked better and showed signs of breaking out of its scoring drought.
The Fightin' Quakers were able to get 14 shots launched, including seven on goal. The 14 shots were tied for the most on the season. Freshman Carl Bergstrom (Gothemburg, Sweden / Elof Lindalv) finished with four shots, including three on goal, while freshman Roman Kirschner (Opava, Czech Republic / Mendel's Grammar School) had four shots with two on goal.
"Today we created the attack to score goals, but we just failed to score," said Wilmington head coach Bud Lewis. "We created them, and in all honestly, Carl Bergstrom did a beautiful job, he just couldn't (score). In the first half, we were one-on-one with the keeper twice, and their keeper played really well. He was the difference in the game. We made some mistakes that cost us some goals, and good teams exploit those mistakes."
John Carroll took the lead with a goal in the 24th minute, and the Blue Streaks added a pair of second half tallies to secure the victory.
"We have a few players that are under performing as it relates to their level, and what there are capable of doing," said Lewis. "We need them to step up; they are great players. We are a good team. This game could have easily been a 3-3 game."
Senior Nick Baker (Indianapolis, IN/Decatur Central) finished with six saves on nine shots in 52:46, while sophomore Eli Feuer (Bexley, OH/Bexley) made four saves on four shots in 37:14.
Wilmington (3-5-2) travels to Bexley 7 p.m. Wednesday for an OAC match with Capital.
