After yielding the equalizer with 90 seconds remaining, Wilmington head coach Bud Lewis had one simple message of his team.

"I just said, 'do you want what happened at Wittenberg or do you want to be winners when you walk off this field', and that was the challenge," said Lewis.

His team stood up to the challenge and walked away winners as senior Ethan Zimpfer (Botkins, OH/Botkins) scored in the second overtime to lead the Fightin' Quakers to the 2-1 win Thursday over Transylvania in non-conference action.

Wilmington dominated the overtime periods, outshooting the Pioneers, 5-0, in the extra minutes. The Fightin' Quakers had four shots in the first overtime, and then the game winner in the second. Senior Martin Holmquist (Karlstad, Sweden/Alvkulle), who spent most the game ensuring Transy's explosive counterattack didn't detonate on Wilmington, made a run down the middle of the box and played a nice ball to Zimpfer at the near post for the game winner.

Senior Alex Ruckman (Monroe, OH/Monroe) gave WC the early lead in the 22nd minute, taking a brilliant crossing pass from freshman Joel Yosef (Alingas, Sweden/Alstrommergymnasiet) and placing it past the Transylvania keeper.

As good as Wilmington was in the first half, the Pioneers was just as good in the second half. After Wilmington led 11-4 in shots in the opening half, TU led 12-4 in the second.

"The first half was probably the best we played all season long, but the part I was concerned about we were 11-4 on shots – but we didn't capitalize on the shots we had," said Lewis. "I challenged the guys at halftime; told them we won the first half, and now we have to go out and win the second half."

However, the Fightin' Quakers seemingly lost some of their composure in the second 45 minutes. Over a 10-minute span in the second half, Wilmington was carded for three yellow cards. Additionally, they committed 14 fouls in the game.

"We got frustrated, the guys got emotional, and all of sudden we started to press," said Lewis. "They had three or four good scoring chances, and Wicks came up big for us again. Transy took over a lot of the momentum at that time, and we were just battling to keep the ball out of our net. To their credit, they did a great job of getting back into the game; in part because we didn't put them away when we had the chance.

"Something this team did today, that we hadn't done yet, was we fought back," Lewis added. "We reclaimed the game. We never let up in the overtime period."

Senior Daniel Wicks (Cincinnati, OH/Reading) recorded eight saves in 101:59 minutes to improve to 3-2 on the season.

Wilmington (3-2) will be off for more than a week before returning to the pitch 7:30 p.m. Friday, September 17 against Earlham in the Wilmington Kiwanis Classic.