Bridgewater College improved to .500 in the conference with a key 2-0 victory Wednesday afternoon over the Randolph College WildCats.
With the win, the Eagles improved to 7-4-2 overall and 2-2 in the ODAC. The loss was the first in conference for the WildCats as they dropped to 6-3-3 overall and 1-1-2 in the ODAC.
Randolph attacked the Eagles defense early, but Bridgewater withstood the early pressure and slowly started to push the play forward.
The Eagles took the lead in the 25th minute on an improbable goal by Connor Henderson. Henderson, who moved to the back line for Wednesday’s contest, kicked the ball from 45 yards out in an attempt to put the ball into the box. The Randolph keeper came off his line and the ball sailed over his head, hit the bottom of the crossbar and fell just beyond the goal line to give the Eagles the 1-0 lead.
Bridgewater held a 7-5 edge in shots in the opening half, but in the second half the WildCats committed more players to the attack.
The Eagles defense remained solid as Bridgewater maintained the 1-0 lead into the final 10 minutes.
Bridgewater picked up a key insurance goal in 83rd minute to lead 2-0. Jack Spiegel pushed the ball ahead in the midfield to Renato Grgic and Grgic flicked a through ball ahead for Noah Malpass. Randolph’s defender misplayed the ball leaving Malpass with a 1-on-1 opportunity with the WildCats keeper. Malpass dribbled to the left just inside the box and stroked a shot past the keeper to the far post, giving the Eagles a two-goal advantage.
With just less than five minutes remaining, the WildCats missed two huge opportunities to make it a one-goal game.
Randolph kicked the ball into its offensive end with the ball rolling to the right just inside the box. Eagles keeper Mark Davis came out to handle the ball, but misplayed it, giving Randolph’s Kyle Unruh a shot at an open goal. Unruh’s shot to the far post, however, missed wide.
The referee ruled that Davis got a hand on Unruh’s shot and the WildCats were awarded a corner kick. The corner kick rolled past Davis at the near post, all the way across the box along the goal line, but no Randolph player was able to get a touch on the ball.
Randolph finished the contest with a slim 12-11 edge in shots while the Eagles held a 7-5 margin in corner kicks.
Davis recorded three saves for the Eagles to register his fifth shutout of the season. Erick Cortez-Martinez finished with three saves for the visitors.
The Eagles will be back in action Saturday evening when they travel to play the Lynchburg College Hornets. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.
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