WILMINGTON, Ohio – The Otterbein men's soccer team dropped a hard-fought match, 1-0, Wednesday night against Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) opponent Wilmington.

With three games remaining in OAC play the difference between fourth place and ninth place is simply three points, as both Otterbein and Wilmington sit with nine total points.

The Cardinals (6-6 overall, 3-3 in the OAC) found their first true opportunity, as Pau Piang ripped a shot that sailed slightly above the crossbar in the 29th minute.

The Otterbein backline of Zach Lantzy, Zach Barwick, Bryan Luckscheiter and Nathan Neal did a phenomenal job of keeping the Wilmington attack silenced, by only allowing two shot attempts in the first 45 minutes. Freshman goalkeeper Andrew McIlvoy made one save in the half.

Wilmington (8-6 overall, 3-3 in the OAC) would get past the strong the Cardinal defense in the 79th minute, as the Fightin' Quakers had a free kick at midfield and played the ball into a crowd of players. McIlvoy charged the ball, but could not maintain possession and Danny Spirk came away scoring the goal to give Wilmington the advantage.

Otterbein saw two final chances in the last three minutes of action. Erick Juarez-Manning had a shot attempt inside the box, but a Wilmington defender blocked the strike. With seconds left on the clock Otterbein had one final corner kick, unfortunately the Cards could not find any magic on the set piece.

The Cardinals owned a slight, 10-9, edge in total shots, but attempted eight corner kicks compared to two by Wilmington. McIlovy tallied four total saves, as his counterpart Felix Maurer recorded three.

Next up, Otterbein will host Muskingum this Saturday at 1 p.m. for Senior Day to honor Juarez-Manning, Luckscheiter, Juan Rivas, Toby Varland and Zach Lewis.