Statesmen Knock Off Dakota Wesleyan in Overtime

William Penn University Athletics

Mitchell, S.D.–The William Penn men’s soccer team continued its hot start Sunday with its first overtime victory, slipping by Dakota Wesleyan 2-1 in non-conference play.

The Statesmen (7-2), off to their best start since 2002 (6-2-1 through nine games), lost the shot tally 13-7, but still managed to take an early lead.

Francis Koroma (Fr., Brooklyn Park, Minn., General Accounting) scored off a pass from Cem Olgar (Fr., Duesseldorf, Germany, Industrial Technology) at the 17:13 mark. It is his fourth goal of the fall.

The lead held up until midway through the second half when the Tigers knotted the score in the 72nd minute.

Neither squad scored in the final minutes to force overtime. Fortunately, the game was settled just 1:50 into the extra period as Olgar put home the game winner. Olgar’s goal tied three others, including Koroma, for the team lead with four.

Pedro Pereira (Fr., Sao Paolo, Brazil, Communications) recorded six saves in the win.

“I am very proud of how the guys performed today,” Head Coach Raphael Martinez said. “DWU is a well-coached team with a lot of speed and I thought we had a solid game on defense.”

“I give a lot of credit to the guys for responding well to the equalizing goal,” Martinez added. “We were able to get to overtime still feeling confident and fortunately it did not take long to put them away.”

Next: William Penn returns to Oskaloosa Wednesday to host Bellevue (Neb.) in non-conference play at 5:30 p.m.