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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The difficult start to the 2010 season continued today for the men's soccer team but behind Alex Boehm's hat-trick, the Panthers were able to hold off a pesky Mt. Vernon Nazarene team to pick up their third win. DU is now 3-2-0 on the year having won their last three contests.
In a matchup of teams that are both receiving votes in the NAIA Top-25 poll, each entered on a hot streak as Davenport had won their previous two games against good competition and Mt. Vernon was coming off an impressive 6-0 shutout of Grace.
The first half was a back and forth affair as neither team could get one by the opposing keeper. Mt Vernon created a few more chances but basically the stats were even in shots and shots on goal.
DU then opened the second half of play with the first goal of the game when Alex Boehm (Stevensville, Mich) scored on a header off a cross from Ryan Duffy-McGirr (Chesterfield, England). The goal was Alex's third in his last three games and put the Panthers on top 1-0 just 6:47 into the second half.
The Cougars then got the equalizer just less than 7:00 later as they scored on a penalty kick but the Panthers again would go on top at the 67:02 mark when Boehm recorded his second goal of the game on a touch pass from sophomore Ricco Mulero (Grand Rapids, Mich.).
With only ten minutes to play, Davenport looked as if they would escape with the one goal win, but disaster struck when a misplaced ball by the DU keeper and defense allowed a Cougar to sneak in and put away the game-tying goal.
In what has been a character building season thus far for the young Panthers squad, the team regrouped quickly and pushed their attack in full force when Alex Boehm (Stevensville, Mich) got behind the Cougar defense and put home his third goal of the game with 8:02 remaining in the second half.
It marked the 6th time a DU player has recorded a hat-trick in program history and the goal would end up being the game winner (the third straight game in which Alex has done that).
Kevin O'Brien (Cork, Ireland) finished the game with six saves and earned his third win of the year as the Panthers will now prepare to play Marian University and Georgetown (Ky.) in the Fort Wayne Soccer Classic hosted at Indiana Tech from September 3-4.
