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Early Lead from Williams Not Enough as Wilmington Falls, 3-1, to Philadelphia in Men’s Soccer

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - - An early lead was not enough for the Wilmington University men's soccer team as the Wildcats dropped a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference matchup against Philadelphia, 3-1, on Wednesday at Ravenhill Field.

The match was pushed back Tuesday's original scheduled start due to severe weather.

Otis Williams gave the Wildcats (2-5, 1-3 CACC) a lead in the first half, but Philadelphia (4-0-3, 2-0-2) responded with three unanswered goals to remain unbeaten on the season.

For the second game in a row, the Wildcat outshot the opposition, but was unable to convert any shots into goals. Wilmington opened the game with a 9-5 advantage in shot and 3-1 advantage in corners in the first half, but only squeezed the one goal by Williams by Rams' goalkeeper Neil Kwiatkowski.

On a centering pass from Tommy Quaranta, Williams headed home the cross form the right side of the box from 10 yards out, beating Kwiatkowski 16:28 into the first half.

But Philadelphia responded quickly, capitalizing on their first shot of the game. After a shot and a save by Matko Novak, Kwiatkowski punted the ball deep and Philadelphia's Ishmaiah Calwrie collected a second ball opportunity and went one-on-one with Wildcats' keeper Chad Jenkins. Calwrie finished it for his second goal of the season 22:05 into the game.

On only their second shot of the second half, the Rams struck again with a breakaway opportunity, this time as Jakob Passernig chipped the ball over Jenkins on the one-on-one following a through ball from Cesar Romero. The Rams would not relinquish the 2-1 lead in the 69th minute.

Removing any doubt, the Rams put another goal on the board in the 88th minute, converting a turnover deep in the Wildcats' zone into a goal. Ryan Schroy forced the turnover at the right side of the 18 and passed it through to Patrick Groh who slid it home into the left side of the net.

The Wildcats held a 23-11 shot advantage for the match, and took one more corner over the Rams, 4-3. The Wildcats also forced Kwiatkowski to make nine saves for the victory, making it 10 shots on goal for Wilmington. Jenkins made one stop in goal in the loss.

Musa Wiah led the Wildcats with three shots on goal while Williams added two shots on frame. Wiah finished with five shots total while Ray Kuemmer added four shots for the match.

The Wildcats will head to Waterbury, Conn., on Saturday to square off against Post in another CACC Matchup. Post was selected to finish first in the CACC according to the conference preseason coaches' poll. The game is set for 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.