Box Score Dalton Christopher
Assistant Athletic Director of Communications & Media
dchristopher@transy.edu


LEXINGTON, KY - Transylvania Men's Soccer (1-0-0) opened their season with a 3-0 victory over Wittenberg (0-1-0) on Saturday morning at Pat Deacon Stadium. 

Originally planned for a 1 p.m. kick-off, the start time was moved up Friday evening due to the potential for severe weather Saturday. The Pioneers took the field Friday for a match up with Heidelberg that was canceled due to numerous lightning delays. Overcoming adversity was the aspect Head Coach Ben Federici emphasized as his takeaway from the opening weekend of the season. 

"I'm really happy with the performance and mentality from our guys this weekend," said Federici. "It's tough to be in a lightning delay for three hours, get a game cancelled and then be back in 12 hours for a different opponent."

The offense started early with Kevin Nevarez scoring at the 5:20 mark of the first half. Leo Bill's corner kick assist set up the first scoring opportunity for the Pioneers this season. Nick Haskin's attempted to find the goal shortly afterwards, but his header attempt was high. Wittenberg's Mustapha Kinteh would take the first scoring opportunity for the Tigers, a corner kick saved by Jackson Holt. Later in the first half, Gus Dickman would break away for the second Pioneer goal at the 27:10 mark, assisted by McKay Wheatley.

Nathan White's shot attempt to start the second half was wide following a corner kick from McKay Wheatley. Transy would find the net again at the 67:55 mark, with Dickman scoring his second goal of the morning on the assist from Cole Varela. A physical and hard played match, Transylvania was shown two yellow cards, with Wittenberg receiving four. Both teams worked to find scoring opportunities, with Wittenberg taking nine shots, Jackson Holt deflected five of them. The Pioneers took nine shots, six on goal, with three finding the back of the net. 

Transylvania moves to 1-0-0 to start the season. 

"Wittenberg is always well coached, so to put three goals in gets me excited about our team," said Federici. "Clean sheet and three points were well deserved."

The Pioneers return to action Saturday, September 7th, taking on Baldwin Wallace University on the road in Alliance, Ohio at 4 p.m.

Transylvania University is a proud member of NCAA Division III and the HCAC. To keep up to date with all of Transylvania Athletics please check our website at www.transysports.com and follow Transy Sports on Twitter and Instagram.