Tribe Falls to No. 22 Ohio State

Juniors Doug McBride and Nathan Belcher were named to the All-Tournament Team.

09/09/07 6:00PM

University Park, Pa. - The William and Mary men’s soccer team dropped its final match of the Penn State Classic, 5-0, to No. 22 Ohio State on Sunday afternoon. The Tribe fell to 1-2 on the year, while the Buckeyes improved to 3-0-1.

Tribe had a pair of corner kicks in the opening seven minutes of the game, but could not cash in on the opportunities. Ohio State broke through at the 8:20 mark, scoring the game’s opening goal. Eric Brunner, who was named to the Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy Watch List, tallied on the score on an assist by Doug Verhoff

Less than three minutes later, sophomore midfielder Price Thomas had a chance to answer for the Tribe. His shot went high of the frame.

After OSU’s Tim Gabel hit the cross bar in the 23rd minute, the Tribe had a pair of scoring chances. Junior forward Brock Jones saw his shot in the 23rd minute go wide of the goal, while Thomas had a similar result in the 26th minute.

Ohio State made it 2-0 in the 32nd minute of play. Geoff Marsh found Kyle Rezlaff for the score. Less than two minutes later, Gabel found the scoring column for the Buckeyes off a dish from Konrad Warzycha to make it 3-0.

The Buckeyes added a pair of early second-half tallies for the final margin. Xavier Balc scored off assists from Andrew Magill and Marsh in the 49th minute, before Roger Espinoza notched the final Buckeye score off assists from Gabel and Danny Irizarry in the 53rd minute.

The Tribe had a sequence of three corners early in the second half. The College earned the corners in the 50th and 51st minutes, but could only muster a shot from sophomore back Roger Bothe. Bothe’s chance was blocked out by the OSU defense at the 50:09 mark

Sophomore midfielder Jeremy Harris had a pair of shots in the 71st and 78th minutes. His initial attempt went wide of the target before the second shot sail high of the frame.

Ohio State outshot W&M, 18-9, while both teams had seven corner kicks. Senior goalkeeper Brennan Wergley finished with three saves in the first half. Redshirt freshman Andrew McAdams made his collegiate debut, playing the entire second half and making one stop.

Juniors Doug McBride and Nathan Belcher were selected to the All-Tournament team. They were joined on the team by MVP Eric Brunner (Ohio State), Xavier Balc (Ohio State), Patrick Roan (Ohio State), Andrew Magill (Ohio State), Grady Renfrow (Penn State), Andres Casais (Penn State), Jason Yeisley (Penn State), Yomby William (Old Dominion) and Trevor Banks (Old Dominion).

The Tribe returns to action at the ODU Stihl Soccer Classic in Norfolk, Va., Sept. 14-16. The College will look to defend the title they won last season at the event. W&M opens the event against Temple on Friday, Sept. 14, at 4:30 p.m., before meeting Dartmouth on Sunday, Sept. 16, at noon.

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