BEREA – Sophomore JC Brewer picked a great time to score his first career goal as his marker in the 75th minute helped the Wilmington College men’s soccer team earn a 3-3 draw with Baldwin Wallace Friday in Ohio Athletic Conference action at George Finnie Stadium.
“This team showed a lot of grit, lot of resiliency,” said Wilmington head coach Bud Lewis. “In one respect, it would have been easy for us to fold – especially after getting back to 2-2 and giving up the third goal. We showed a lot of character in the face of adversity. We earned our first point in the league. It’s not a lot, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
Brewer (New Carlisle, OH/Tecumseh) took the rebound from a free kick save to push the ball in the back of the net.
The Yellow Jackets took the lead in the 16th minute as the OAC’s leading scorer Danny Ruple found the back of the net, and they doubled their lead with an unassisted goal by Michael Snowball in the 31st minute.
Wilmington struck quickly in getting back into the game. Junior Niklas Martensson (Torna Hallestad, Sweden/NTI) headed home the corner kick from classmate Benny Spirk (Wilmington, OH/Wilmington) at the 33:26 mark of the first half. It was Martensson’s team-leading eighth goal of the season.
Martensson was on the distributing side of the goal 20 seconds later as junior Jason Altmayer (Bethel, OH/Bethel-Tate) scored his first goal of the season to send the teams into half knotted at two.
BW reclaimed the lead less than 10 minutes into the second half as Ruple assisted on a Logan Davis score in the 54th minute.
Junior keeper Eli Feuer (Bexley, OH/Bexley) picked up the decision with five saves in 41:31 of action. Feuer came in to replace injured Chris Bourque (Batavia, OH/Batavia) midway through the second half.
Wilmington was tagged with five of the seven yellow cards called in the game.
Wilmington (6-5-2 overall, 0-2-1 OAC) returns to Townsend Field 7 p.m. Wednesday, hosting Otterbein (8-2 overall, 2-0 OAC).
