Listen Here
By Alyssa Grevenkamp
@Gbabyy20
The Findlay men’s soccer team had two big contests over the weekend. The first being against the Ohio Dominican Panthers and the other against the Lake Erie Storm.
The Oilers took the field for their home-opener against Ohio Dominican at DeHaven Field on Sept. 18 in search of their second win of the year.
The first half was back and forth as both teams struggled to find the net. Findlay’s goal keeper Joe McClanahan would be tested by Ohio Dominican’s offense as they would come out strong firing seven shots in the first half. McClanahan had four saves in the first half.
Fast forward into the second half with 40 minutes left: Findlay got a shot off, but was denied by the goalkeeper the first time. When the ball was deflected back in the field of play, Findlay’s Michael Shaikly got the rebound and quickly kicked it into the back of the net for the first and only goal of the game.
The Oilers would keep up the defensive pressure the rest of the second half. The defense remained solid as John Clark and Bailey Crawford held off the Panthers attack.
Findlay would have ten corner kicks where Ohio Dominican only had two the entire game. The Oilers would also finish the game with more shots than the Panthers having 14 compared to 10.
The Oilers would hold off the Panthers and win the match 1-0, evening their record up to 2-2 on the year.
On Sept. 20, the Oilers took on Storm of Lake Erie for their second match of the weekend. The Storm came into the game with a record of 1-2-1, coming off a 2-1 win against Tiffin.
The first half of the game against Lake Erie was much more exciting than the game against Ohio Dominican. Four total goals were scored in the first half alone.
Not even 20 seconds into the game the Storm came out firing as they scored their first goal on Joe McClanahan. This Lake Erie goal was scored by Chad Bencina.
While Lake Erie may have scored extremely early in the contest, Findlay wasn’t frazzled and they would come back down the field an answer just as quickly.
Findlay’s Ryan Husband would shoot and score 16 seconds after Lake Erie scored. Husband’s goal would knot things up at one apiece.
Only three minutes into the first half, Husband would go on a fast break and assist Mark Sleasman for the Oilers second goal of the game. This put Findlay up 2-1 and gave Sleasman his second goal of the season.
At the 18:21 mark in the first half, Michael Shaikly would finish off a goal that was mishandled by the Lake Erie goalkeeper Filip Ljubevski. This would put the Oilers up 3-1 at the half.
While the Storm only had 3 shots in the first half, they turned up the offensive intensity in the second half and fired off 12 shots against the Oilers.
The Storm struggled to come across points until the 83 minute mark when the Oilers goal keeper Joe McClanahan was trying to clear the ball but misjudged it and the ball rolled into the net making the score 3-2 giving the Storm a shot to tie things up with 7 minutes to go.
Findlay’s defense would pick up the intensity to stop the offensive attack of Lake Erie. They would be able to shut down the Storms other attacks and come away with their third victory of the year.
Not only was this game back and forth offensively, but it was back and forth with penalties, too. The Oilers had 19 fouls and the Storm had 11 fouls. There were also plenty of yellow cards to go around to each team. Findlay was awarded four yellow cards and Lake Erie was awarded three yellow cards.
Findlay improved their record to 3-2. The Oilers next game will be on the road on Friday, Sept. 25 against Saginaw Valley State University at 4:30 p.m.
