For the last time in 43 years, Wilmington head coach Bud Lewis led the charge from the home sidelines for the men's soccer program.
The evening was filled with a lot of pregame pomp and circumstance as the athletic department honored Lewis for his tenure and honored four seniors for their contributions to the program, and then pregame came to an end as Lewis' daughter, Emily, sang the national anthem.
"It's hard to comprehend that I won't be on the sidelines for the men's soccer program," said Lewis. "I certainly would have loved to have had that last experience to be a 'W' here, but now we have to try to finish the season strong. We are a good team. We haven't been rewarded with results that I think we could have had. It's nobody's fault, it just good completion."
Once the game started, it was a physical affair by a team fighting to stay in contention for a berth in the Ohio Athletic Conference tournament. However, it just wasn't to be as Mount Union spoiled the evening with a goal in the 73rd minute as the Purple Raiders posted the 1-0 victory Saturday.
"There are a lot of ways to lose, and that was one that didn't need to happen," said Lewis. "Chris (Bourque) has played really well for us, and just mishandled a ball. He makes that save 19 out of 20 times. It was just unfortunate. But, we didn't create much offensively. Give Mount Union credit, they really defended us well. We did get a good look at the end of the game. We had a wide open look at the back post and JC (Brewer) just missed it wide."
Brewer's header attempt came with less than two minutes remaining in the contest, and Mount Union was able to prevent any more chances.
Twenty-two fouls and three yellow cards were issued in the contest, and it seemed as more fouls could have been called.
Wilmington played without their top two offensive threats, and it showed as the Fightin' Quakers couldn't manage much attack. WC finished with 10 shots, four of which were on goal.
Wilmington (7-8-2 overall, 1-5-1 OAC) travels to Muskingum 4 p.m. Wednesday in OAC action.