Box Score Despite playing 90 minutes of hard fought soccer, the Pirates and Stormy Petrels needed extra time to decide the game Friday at Southwestern University. The Pirates took advantage of the extra time as Ben Feiler headed the ball into the net after a long throw in by Alex Keller and an assist by Tim Hord.
The Pirates and Stormy Petrels met Friday afternoon for an SCAC conference game on a cool and beautiful afternoon in Georgetown, TX. The story of the first half for the Pirates is that of near misses and strong defense. After much back and forth around midfield for the first 5 minutes of the game, a Pretrel forward broke away on an errant Southwestern pass. Pirate keeper Nick Pierce came out and made a great sliding save in a one on one situation to keep the gave even at 0. Midway through the first half the Pirates narrowly missed scoring opportunities.
In the 25th minute Alex Keller lofted a ball from 25 yards out looking to catch the keeper off his line. The shot missed by mere feet but started a momentum swing that moved the ball to the Petrels side of the field for several minutes. Minutes later Evan Perkins recieved a long cross from Steven Resnik and just missed a solid header over the cross bar. The Pirates onslaught on the Oglethorpe goal keeper would continue with several good opportunies but unlucky bounces. Meanwhile, the Pirate defense led by keeper Nick Pierce held solid through the first half, denying the Stormy Petrels on several very difficult opportunities. Despite strong play by the Pirates, the first half ended at 0.
Southwestern came out agressive in the second half, notching the first goal of the game on a long throw from Alex Keller to Ben Feiler who headed the ball to the feet of Matt Nickell. Nickell took the opportunity and tapped the ball by the only remaining defender. The Petrels took the opportunity to step up their offense as well and spent several minutes on the Pirate end of the field. Once again the Pirate defense was strong and defelected every attempt the Petrels could muster. The onslaught was culminated by a diving save by Pierce after a strong cross and shot by Oglethorpe. On a strange play halfway through the second half, after several Pirate attempts on goal, the Petrels played a high ball deep down the middle that hit and had a high bounce. As Pierce came out to make a play on the ball a Petrel forward collided with Pierce just as the ball reached the keeper's hands. After a juggle by Pierce, the Ogelthrope forward tapped the ball into the net to even the score at 1-1 with 30 minutes remaining in the game. After several corners and near misses by both teams, the score remained tied at the end of regulation.
In the extra period, Evan Perkins unleashed a scalded ball that beat the keeper but missed the left side of the net by inches, banging off the bar and back into play. In the play that insued, the ball was hit out of bounds by a Petrel player near the Pirates' bench. Throw in specialist Alex Keller heaved a long ball into the box and Ben Feiler, thanks to an assist by Tim Hord, flicked the ball into the right side of the goal, beating a defender, the goal keeper, and winning the game.
The Pirates move to 10-6 and 7-1 in conference while the Stormy Petrels fall to 6-9-2, 4-5 in conference. The Pirates resume play against Sewanee this Sunday at 12:30 pm for senior day.
