The Little Giants put up six shots in the first 22 minutes of play Wednesday afternoon against Wittenberg, but managed only one goal. The Tigers broke a 2-2 tie in the 74th minute to defeat Wabash 3-2 in North Coast Athletic Conference soccer action.
Early chances gave the Little GIants good looks at the net, but time again the shot was either turned away by Wittenberg goalkeeper Michael Lambeck or sailed just over or past the goal.
"I really thought we outplayed Wittenberg in the way we created our shots," head coach Roberto Giannini said. "Give them credit --- every time we made a mistake, Wittenberg made us pay by turning it into a goal. We really didn't make them work. We never responded the way we need to.
"I'm proud of the effort tonight. We worked hard for 50-50 balls. At times the way we played was beautiful to watch. We're going to be fine. We just have to play our style of soccer for 90 minutes. We didn't do that this evening."
Wabash took the early lead when Ryan Fier collected a deflected corner kick by Dylan Andrew and lifted a shot over the defense and Lambeck for his second goal of the season. Seven minutes later the Tigers responded on a pass to the front of net by Stefan Latham that was collected by Nate Ayres for a goal to tie the match at 1-1.
The match remain tied through the first half before Wittenberg struck early in the second. Alejandro Garcia put the visitors up 2-1 off a pass from Michael Condon.
Ian Kelly scored the equalizer three minutes later, tallying his third goal of the year off another pass from Andrew --- his eighth assists of the season. The score remained tied until Condon found Brian Glenn for the game-winning shot in the 74th minute.
Wittenberg (3-8-2, 2-1-1 NCAC) managed 11 shots and six shots on goal. Lambeck had four saves out of 13 total shots by Wabash and six shots on goal.
Matt Paul picked up three saves in goal for the Little Giants (7-6-1, 2-3-0 NCAC).
"The guys were disappointed after the match," Giannini said. "We fell into some old habits. We have to regroup and be ready to play our style of soccer Saturday when we travel to Hiram. I'm confident this team can go and do that."
Photo - Freshman Ryan Fier hustles after a loose ball early in the match. Fier's second goal of the season gave Wabash a 1-0 lead, but the Little Giants could not hold on in a 3-2 loss to Wittenberg. Photo by Susan Albrecht.