WESTERVILLE — The Otterbein men's soccer team came away with a 4-0 victory over Ohio Athletic Conference foe Heidelberg in Saturday's Senior Day game to close its regular-season schedule. Prior to the game, the team held a ceremony honoring seniors Silver Abraham, Tord Heskestad, Nick Manivilovski and Hayden Vu. The Cardinals enter next week's six-team OAC Tournament as the No. 3 seed and will face sixth-seeded Wilmington in Tuesday's quarterfinals. The semifinals are scheduled for Thursday with the championship game set for Saturday.

The Basics

• Records: Otterbein (10-6-2 overall, 6-3-0 OAC), Heidelberg (1-14-2 overall, 1-7-1 OAC)
• Venue: Memorial Stadium - Westerville, Ohio
• OAC Tournament page

The Game

• The Cardinals got on the scoreboard in 23rd minute on a goal from junior Jacob Irani via an assist from senior Nick Isaac.
• Otterbein added to its lead with a goal from Abraham that was assisted by Isaac in the 31st minute.
• The Cardinals took that 2-0 edge into halftime. At the break, Otterbein held a 13-1 advantage in shots, including 6-1 in shots on goal, and 7-1 edge in corner kicks.
• Otterbein opened the second-half scoring with a goal from junior Drew Boettcher assisted by junior Mitchell Patterson and Abraham in the 62nd minute.
• The Cardinals made it a 4-0 lead in the 65th minute on a goal from freshman Will Meilstrup assisted by graduate student Drew Holman to cap the scoring.
• Otterbein out-shot Heidelberg by a 28-2 margin, including 12-2 in shots on goal, and finished with an 11-3 edge in corner kicks.
• Freshman Jason Villalobos played all 90 minutes in goal for Otterbein and recorded two saves in the shutout.

Quotes

• Senior Silver Abraham: "It feels good. We had a rough start in a couple games this season, and we've gone on a good streak these past couple weeks, so I think we're in a good spot. This was a good way to end off my last regular-season game along with Vu, Manny and Tord. We just have to move into next week with our head held high. Our energy and morale is high. We're having fun right now, but it's time to get serious as we go into the tournament next week."
• Head coach Jason Griffiths: "Our four seniors and our fifth-years have really meant a lot to the program. Two OAC championships and two NCAA Tournament appearances and a lot of wins and a lot of good things. They've been very consistent as a senior class. Vu has been solid on the back line all four years for us and has played a big role in our championship runs. Tord has finally been able to get some minutes this year, which has been great. He's been healthy and has been playing pretty well. Nick has been injured, but we were able to get him some minutes today, and we're happy about that. Silver stepped away last year and came back this year and has been big in the past couple games. He had the game-winner against John Carroll and scored again tonight. He's finding his form, which is good for us because when he's on, he's really good. I'm proud of these guys and how they've developed over the past four years and want them to have a good finish in their senior season."
• Griffiths on taking the positive momentum into the OAC Tournament: "We've had three clean sheets in a row now, which is big because good defensive performances can win championships. And we've been scoring goals, which is something we lacked a little bit early in the season. Consistency has been something we've struggled with this year, so the past three games have been good for us, and we want to build off of it going into the postseason."

  Notables

• The goals for Irani and Meilstrup marked the first of their careers.
• Abraham's goal was his third of the season and his second in as many games. He now has 32 career points on 12 goals eight assists.
• Isaac now has 10 assists this season, giving him 42 points on 13 goals and 16 assists in his Otterbein career.
• Villalobos now has 11 shutouts this season.
• Otterbein is 9-0-1 against Heidelberg in the teams' past 10 meetings and is 11-5-1 against the Student Princes dating back to 2008.
• In his eighth season with the program, Otterbein head coach Jason Griffiths now holds an overall record of 92-38-14.
• Otterbein played 23 different players in Saturday's game.