Malone University Athletics

The Malone University men's soccer team dropped a home match to Ohio Valley on Thursday afternoon by a score of 1-0. The win moves the Fighting Scots of Ohio Valley to 6-3-1 on the season and 3-2-1 in Great Midwest Athletic Conference play. Malone falls to 1-5-2 overall and 0-5-1 in the G-MAC.
 
The game was chippy throughout and there were stoppages left and right. The game totaled 33 fouls and six yellow cards handed out.
 
Early in the contest, the action was back and forth with both teams getting deep in their offensive zones. A flurry of free kicks for the Fighting Scots created the opening they needed to score the game's first, and eventually only goal.
 
Juan Munoz floated a beautiful pass from long range over the Pioneer defense and Hugo Kadima outran the pack to get into clean air and directed the ball into the bottom right corner of the net at the 13-minute mark.
 
The first half wrapped up with seven shots apiece, but the vitally important goal went to Ohio Valley.
 
The Pioneers defensively played superb the entire match, but especially in the second half when the Fighting Scots tried to put away the Pioneers early in the second stanza.
 
Patrick Alvarez, Jonathan Dendinger, Nick Fry and Jamal Rasheed were able to get touches on Ohio Valley shots and blocked a few opportunities from close range.
 
In the end, the Pioneers missed out on scoring an equalizing goal, but possessed the ball in Fighting Scot territory for the majority of the closing minutes of the match.
 
The Pioneers enlisted help from a variety of sources, including goalkeeper Nick Wilhelm, who made his first start of 2019 and collected five saves.
 
Christopher Mally provided a huge spark for the Pioneer offense. He played 56 minutes off the bench, took three shots and led the team with two shots-on-goal.
 
Simon Eybert and Patrick Alvarez attacked the net and ended the day with three shots each.
 
Malone will look to get a win in their next match this Saturday, October 12 when the Pioneers host the Battlers of Alderson Broaddus. The match will follow the women's soccer game before it, kicking off at 1 pm.