Box Score

John Carroll staked itself a 2-0 lead, then held off a furious rally by visiting Marietta College to earn a hard-fought 2-1 victory in a quarterfinal round match-up of the 2007 Ohio Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament staged Monday afternoon at Don Shula Stadium.

click here to watch video of the match

The #3 seed Blue Streaks came out on the attack against the sixth-seeded Pioneers, mindful of a 2-1 double overtime loss that concluded regular-season play Saturday at Marietta.  After a steady flow of pressure on the Marietta defense, the Blue Streaks were the first to score in the match. At the 33:57 mark, senior Alex Bernot followed ina  ball strcuk by Antonio Biasiotta and cashed in with his team-leading 11th goal of the season.

The Blue Steaks continued to stay hot offensively with another goal at the beginning of the second half. John Carroll's score was tallied by junior Louis Kastelic, who headed in a corner kick by Bernot to increase the lead 2-0.

Despite the JCU goal, Marietta was the more aggressive team in the second half. The Pioneers uncorked 14 shots, including two that struck the crossbar, over the final 45 minutes. It was not until just under six minutes left in regulation, however, that any of those shots found their target. Dan Cawley finally succeeded as he kicked one in from a corner kick by teammate Drew Craig to make the score 2-1.

JCU controlled play over the final 5:56 to advance to the next round.

The Blue Streaks' keeper, Matt DeMarchi, finished the game with seven saves.

John Carroll, which is making its league-record 15th tournament appearance, will move on to play Heidelberg College at Tiffin on Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the semifinalsof the OAC tournment.