Oberlin, Ohio - The Oberlin College men's soccer team celebrated Senior Night with a commanding 5-1 victory over the visiting Hiram College Terriers on Wednesday night at Fred Shults Field.
Prior to the game, the Yeomen honored Jon Schafter, Alec Gembala, Jesper Soelvberg, and Zack Butter for their contributions to the program throughout their respective careers and once the action started on the pitch, their presence was certainly felt this evening.
Oberlin controlled the run of play throughout the 90-minute affair, evident by a 32-2 advantage in shots and 12-1 margin in corner kick opportunities.
However, it was the Terriers who struck first as a foul in the box less than 10 minutes in setup Cole Koch for a penalty kick to stake the visitors to an early 1-0 lead.
After a flurry of shots that went by wayside for the Yeomen, they would eventually find the equalizer in the 41st minute as Gembala created space at the top of the box and had his shot attempt slip through the hands of Hiram keeper CJ Timm to level the count 1-1. It marked the second score of the year for Gembala.
Oberlin would go out in front for good in the 55th minute when Schafter headed home a corner kick service from Nasim Amer.
The Yeomen continued to keep up their workrate throughout the second half, tacking on three more scores to leave no doubt in the eventual outcome.
Xander Francoeur deposited his team-leading seventh goal of the year in the 72nd minute as he finished off a Toby Wells-Zimmerman feed.
In the final 15 minutes of play, Augie Smith would get into the act as he finished off a pass from Joaquin Mendez, who secured his first-career collegiate point with the helper. In the closing minutes sophomore Ethan Long would cap the game's scoring with his first-career goal after getting set up by Antony Commissaris.
The victory marked the Yeomen's first conference triumph of the season and first in the month of October as they improved to 5-7-1 overall and 1-4-1 in the NCAC. Hiram fell back to 1-12-0 and 0-5-0 in league play.
The Yeomen return to action on Saturday afternoon at DePauw University. The opening whistle is set for 2:30 p.m.
