ADA, Ohio - Elorm Dogbey scored his third goal in two games, and it proved to be the game-winner as the fifth-year senior's strike in the 72nd minute gave the Wilmington College men's soccer team a 1-0 victory over Kalamazoo College (Michigan) on Saturday.
"Today was a great win because it showed how we are evolving as a team," first year Head Coach Cory Bucur said. "We faced some similar challenges we had in our first game of the season and I thought we dealt with those challenges a lot better today."
Kalamazoo, which was looking to avenge a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Wilmington a season ago, took seven shots to the Quakers' three. Freshman goalkeeper Thomas Grimes was up for the challenge, however, making five saves in the first 45 minutes.
In the second half, the script flipped of sorts as the Quakers fired 10 shots on the Hornet net and only allowed six. The sixth Wilmington shot found the back of the net as Dogbey, who was scored the team's last three goals, scored the lone goal of the contest off a pass from Nick In'tZand.
"The other exciting aspect is we had key contributions from guys making their college debuts today," Bucur commented. "Elorm made an intelligent run into space and received a great ball from Nick In'tZand behind the back line, but the play started with Kael Rascon being very calm under pressure in his college debut and spraying a great initial pass out to Nick."
Both teams took 13 shots in the game, but Kalamazoo held a 8-5 edge in shots on net. Grimes was up to the task on each attempt to earn his third win of the season. Gavin Houtkooper took the loss for Kalamazoo in a four-save performance. Sakarias Bahamondez took three shots to lead WC while Tony Yazback also took three for Kalamazoo.
The Quakers (3-1-1) host nationally-ranked Kenyon College on Wednesday evening. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m