Overtime seems to be the name of the game for the Bucs this year, and on Tuesday against the Mercer University Bears, the team made sure to not falter or end with a draw.
When ETSU met with Mercer earlier in October in Summers-Taylor, the game ended with a 0-0 draw in double-overtime.
Head Coach Bo Oshoniyi attributes these draws and overtimes this season to the fact that the SoCon itself is a very tight and very defensive conference.
“We’ve grown accustomed to it [overtime] this season,” said Oshoniyi. “And not saying we like it, but we’ve been able to fight our way through them and get some results.”
When the Bucs travelled to Macon, Georgia, on Tuesday, they went into overtime again with the Bears, but came out on top.
“We’ve been in these overtime matches throughout the season,” said Oshoniyi. “So we felt comfortable going into that overtime and had created good chances in normal play, and were able to get a goal to win it.”
In the 98th minute of play, senior Fletcher Ekern (Knoxville, Tennessee) sent a pass in to freshman Danny Barlow (Newcastle, England). When Barlow attempted to shoot, the ball deflected off a Mercer player and was sent into the goal. An own-goal by Mercer gave the Bucs the one they needed to secure the win.
ETSU out-shot Mercer this time around with eight shots on goal throughout the match compared to Mercer’s three.
Jonny Sutherland (Chester, U.K) recorded his eighth shutout of the season with this win, and had three saves on the night.
On Saturday, the Bucs will finish their regular season play against Wofford on senior night. This is a team who they beat 3-2 in their first SoCon matchup this year.
“It’s going to be a typical SoCon match,” said Oshoniyi. “We have a chance to win the regular season SoCon championship again, so I know the guys are fired up and ready for that.”
This match with Wofford determines both their fate in the regular season SoCon as well as how they place going into the overall SoCon tournament.
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