Wilkes Men's Soccer Falls to Goucher 3-0 on Senior Day
EDWARDSVILLE – The Wilkes men's soccer team dropped a Landmark matchup with Goucher College 3-0 on Saturday afternoon at Bruggeworth Field in the team's season finale.
With the loss, Wilkes finished their 2023 campaign with a 3-8-5 overall record while going 1-6-2 in the Landmark. Goucher improved to 9-6-2 on the season and 4-4-1 in conference play.
The Gophers jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when Gus Dalzell collected a cross from Michael Adekanmbi and put the ball in the back of the Colonels' goal just 42 seconds into the match.
Wilkes goalkeeper Nick Kinzler (Jackson, NJ/Jackson Memorial) shut down two more scoring attempts by Adekanmbi in the sixth and 11th minutes of play, stopping a pair of low shots by the Goucher forward.
Goucher added to their lead at 18:51 when Bobby Beringer intercepted a pass from Kinzler while pressing on a Wilkes goal kick and sending it into the unattended goal to give the Gophers a 2-0 lead.
The Colonels responded in the 25th minute with three shots by Zachary Dudak (Stroudsburg, PA/Stroudsburg), Vincent Ippolito (Park Ridge, NJ/Park Ridge) and Herbert Ramirez (Highstown, NJ/Highstown). They continued to press the Goucher defense in the ensuing minutes of action, culminating in a golden opportunity for Conner Maciejcyzk that narrowly missed the goal.
Kinzler prevented the Gophers from adding to their lead in the dying minutes of the first half, stopping a bid by Rafael Berhanu at 42:32. Kinzler's third save of the half kept the score at 2-0 heading into halftime.
Coming out of the break, Kinzler picked up right where he left off by stopping a pair of shots in the 48th minute.
The Colonels broke Goucher's momentum one minute later, firing three consecutive shots towards goal to no avail.
Goucher answered the Wilkes pressure at 67:19 when Paul Van Engeland ripped a shot past Kinzler to make it a 3-0 contest in favor of the Gophers. Adekanmbi recorded his second assist of the night on the play.
The Colonels managed one more flurry of offensive pressure late in the contest as Xavier Guerreiro (Newtown, PA/Council Rock North), Seth Marsteller (Coplay, PA/Whitehall) and Eli Gordon (Jacksonville, FL/The Bolles School) all registered shots on the Goucher goalkeeper. The Gopher netminder preserved his shutout however, and Goucher held their 3-0 lead through the final buzzer.
Ramirez and Marsteller led the Colonels' attack with both two shots each. Kinzler made five saves in his final appearance of the season.
Beringer tallied four shots for Goucher, followed by Adekanmbi who had three shots and two assists on the afternoon. Sternini stopped both shots he faced in the two-save shutout for the Gophers.
