Wabash tied Transylvania early in the second period with a Mark Babcock penalty, but the home squad got a penalty kick of its own in the final two minutes to take a 2-1 win over the Little Giants Wednesday afternoon in Lexington, Kentucky.
The Little Giants trailed 1-0 when Pierre Manga beat goalkeeper Pat West one-on-one in the 14th minute. West rallied to record five saves over the course of the match to keep his Wabash team in the match.
Mark Babcock tied the match at 1-1 when a penalty kick was awarded to the Little Giants. The junior scored his sixth goal of the season and improved to 4-for-4 on penalty kicks when he drilled the free opportunity into the back of the net.
The match continued with a a total of 24 fouls in addition to eight yellow cards issued by the officials, including six on the Pioneers with one called on the team bench in the first half. Wabash received two cards in the opening period but settled into play before a foul called in the box with 1:30 showing on the game clock gave Jason Fairless a chance to break the 1-1 tie. His shot got past West for the eventual game-winning goal to push Transylvania to 10-3-1 for the season.
"It was a hard fought battle," head coach Roberto Giannini said. "We were a little soft in the first half, but played very strong in the second half. We made an early mistake and they took advantage of it to score their first goal. We executed our game plan in the second half with some nice passing and crosses. We were a little soft in terms of finishing in the final 18 meters with some strong shots, but we still found a way to score the equalizer.
"We had a very good second half against a very good soccer team. I'm very pleased with that. It was a hard-fought match."
Wabash (8-7-1, 3-3-0) will face nationally-ranked Ohio Wesleyan University in North Coast Athletic Conference action Saturday at noon. The Battling Bishops are ranked number-one in the nation by D3soccer.com and number-two by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. The match will also be the final regular season home contest for seniors Tim Cheek, Jon Funston, Drew Kapsalis, Christian Krenk, and David Rosborough.
Photo - Mark Babcock from a penalty kick earlier in the season.