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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Cardinal men's soccer team tallied its third-straight victory with a 2-1 defeat of Denison on Wednesday night in a non-conference matchup inside Memorial Stadium.
Otterbein (5-2 overall) matches last season's longest winning streak in swift fashion and has now held its opponent to one or fewer goals in each of its five wins. Next up for the Cards is a matchup against Earlham on home turf Saturday at 7 p.m.
Sophomore
Kennedy Mensah got the Cardinal scoring effort going early, notching the game's first goal exactly two minutes into play after cashing in on his own rebound and put-back off a host of Big Red defenders.
The score was Mensah's third goal of the last three games as he has now in sole possession of the team lead with five goals, having scored in all but two games so far this year.
Otterbein quickly added to its lead just over eight minutes later as senior
Bryan Luckscheiter headed in his first career goal as a Cardinal, scoring off a headed pass in the box from junior
Zach Lewis after the initial touch by classmate
Erick Juarez-Manning.
The Cardinals closed out the initial frame strong doubling the Big Red in the shot margin, 12-6, while goalkeeper
Collin Hoffmann stopped three shots to Denison keeper Dylan Brown's mark of eight.
Denison cut its deficit to 2-1 shortly into the second half of action, capitalizing off a corner kick in the 51st minute that featured a well-placed cross before Tucker Nuzum-Clark shot far post out of the reach of Hoffmann.
Otterbein nearly tacked on another goal just over 10 minutes later, coming off a free kick from 30-plus yards outside the box from Lewis which was saved by Brown in a diving attempt.
Both teams traded a few opportunities on goal over the final 35 minutes of action, but the Cardinal defense locked down the back line in front of Hoffman, who finished the game with six saves for his fifth win in goal.
Brown concluded the contest with 14 saves on the opposite end for Denison, while the Cards kept him busy all night finishing with a 24-12 advantage in shots, including a 16-9 mark in shots on goal.
