Penalty Kick Downs DC in 1-0 Loss to Wilmington

DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Defiance men's soccer team dropped another tough one, as it lost to the Wilmington Quakers in its second straight match decided by a score of 1-0. This time, a penalty kick in the second half sunk DC, as they now fall to 0-9-0 on the season.

The match started with Wilmington having the advantage early on, as it manufactured multiple shots at the net. But a stingy DC defense handled the Quaker attack and allowed the team to get settled in and open up a few opportunities for the offense.

Defiance was outshot 8-to-3, in the first half but held together as the teams went into intermission with the match still knotted at zero. A lot of the credit for the tie was due to the efforts of senior goalie Sean Mukhtar who made a few fantastic saves.

After the short break, Wilmington came out with the pressure first and got the ball into a box and induced a DC foul that led to a penalty kick in the 52nd minute. The Quakers Dan Wicks stepped into the box and drilled the ball into the upper left 90 to take the 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately for DC, that was all Wilmington would need as it kept the ball away from Defiance for a good amount of the second period and never allowed the Jackets to get an attack set up. 

The Yellow Jackets gave it their all as they scrambled for any chance at the net and made the Quakers nervous for a second when DC's Kevin Arriola had a shot from inside the box with less than 20 seconds left. 

The goalie came out of the net to make a play and was out of position when Arriola shot the ball, but a fantastic block by a Quaker knocked the ball out of bounds and the clock ran out on DC as they fell in a 1-0 heartbreaker.

Defiance will be back on the road in its next game when they travel to Rochester, Michigan on Tuesday, September 25. The match is slated for 4 p.m.