(WESTERVILLE, Ohio) – After a thrilling penalty kick advancement in the quarterfinals against Capital University last night, the Quakers will take on the Otterbein University Cardinals tomorrow night at 7:00 P.M. on the road in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament Semifinals. This is Wilmington's first time in the OAC Tournament Semifinal round since 2022, where they advanced to the Championship game.
Semifinals Preview
The Quakers and Cardinals battled in the Quarterfinal round of the OAC Tournament last season in Westerville, where Otterbein bested Wilmington 5-1. This season at home in Wilmington, the Cardinals beat the Quakers 3-1 on October 15th.
Neither team scored in the first half of that game, before the Cardinals got on the board in the 51st minute.
Parker Burke tied the game in the 52nd minute on an incredible goal after the ball deflected off a defender and he jumped up and striked it into the back of the net. The Cardinals put two more goals on the board in the loss.
The two players to look out for offensively for Otterbein are freshman Lincoln Wallace and senior Nick Isaac. Wallace has a had an incredible freshman campaign, as he is tied for third in the conference in goals with 12 and is fourth in points with 27. Isaac is tied for ninth in the conference with seven goals, tied for second with eight assists, and is tied for sixth with 22 points.
Sophomore Jason Villalobos is rock solid in the net for the Cardinals. He is second in the conference in goals allowed average at 1.30 and is third in goals allowed at just 19 this season. He is also tied for second with three shutouts.
The Quakers and Cardinals are neck and neck offensively, as Otterbein ranks ahead of Wilmington in goals per game with 2.47 to Wilmington's 2.45. However, the Quakers have scored 49 goals to the Cardinals 42. It's a similar story defensively. Otterbein has allowed 20 goals to Wilmington's 26 and average 1.18 goals allowed per game to the Quakers 1.30.
Quarterfinals Recap
The Quakers road to the semifinals didn't come easily. Their matchup with the Capital Comets was stuck at 0-0 until the 74th minute where junior
Tannar Beermann snuck a ball past the Comets keeper off a pass from senior
Kaden Young for a 1-0 lead. Capital sent it to overtime with an 88th minute strike.
Several chances came during the 20 minutes of plays during overtime, but neither team scored to send us to penalty kicks. This was Wilmington's first penalty kick game since the COVID spring 2020 season on April 15th, 2021, where they fell to Marietta College.
In PKs, Capital missed their first two kicks and Wilmington made them both to give them an advantage they would hold onto and come away with a 3-2 PK advancement.
OAC Preview
In the other OAC Semifinals matchup, the University of Mount Union battles the top seeded Ohio Northern University Polar Bears in Ada, Ohio. During their regular season matchup on October 25th, the two squads battled to a 2-2 draw.
