DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Defiance College men’s soccer team dropped a close match by a score of 2-1 on Wednesday evening. The loss drops the Yellow Jackets to 1-6-1 on the season.

The Yellow Jackets’ attack looked bound to grab the opening goal in the first 15 minutes when they had multiple scoring opportunities but they could not capitalize.

Rochester then settled into the flow of the game and had some chances of its own but also came up empty on its attempts. The game entered halftime scoreless with Rochester registering 12 shots to Defiance’s 10 shots.

The second half opened up with more scoring opportunities from both teams with neither one finding the back of the net. Then in the 55th minute a Rochester player was brought down in the box and the Warriors were awarded a penalty kick. Rochester’s Robert Ekrem stepped up to the spot and finished past the keeper to give the Warriors the game’s first goal.

Seven minutes later Defiance had what they thought was the equalizing goal when freshman Phil Weirich scored only to have the goal disallowed by the ref who deemed that a foul occured on the play.

However, Defiance would not have to wait long to find the goal it was desperately seeking as a Yellow Jacket got fouled just outside the box setting up a free kick. Senior defender Kevin Elson delivered a wonderful strike into the left side of the goal that leveled the game at 1-1.

The game continued to go back and forth when Warrior forward Chad Helberg managed to get behind the DC defense and net the game-winning goal in the 82nd minute, as Defiance could not score in the remaining eight minutes of the contest.

Defiance’s next game is on Saturday, September 24 when they travel to Anderson University to open up Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference play at 1:00 p.m.