For the second-straight year Denison was paired off against the Kenyon Lords in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament Semifinals.  Last year, as the No. 2 seed, the Big Red knocked off the Lords 1-0 in front of their home crowd in Granville.  This year, as the No. 3 seed Denison did it to the Lords again, this time to the tune of a 2-1 victory thanks to an outstanding showing by the Big Red back line in the second half.

With the victory Denison will advance to the NCAC Championship match on Saturday (Nov. 6) against Ohio Wesleyan at 7 p.m.  The top-seeded Bishops dispatched No. 4 Allegheny from the tournament, 2-0 on Wednesday evening.

Both of Denison's goals came in a frenetic first half.  Denison would connect on two of their four shot attempts over the first 45 minutes of play.  In the second half it was all about the defense as Drew Lash (Ballwin, Mo./Whitfield School), Matt Kepler (Chatham, N.J./Chatham), Evan Johnson (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington) and John Rerucha (Maumee, Ohio/St. John's Jesuit) along with first-year goalkeeper Matt Wagner (Nicholasville, Ky./Lexington Catholic) made play after play to keep the Lords from tying the match and forcing overtime.

The Big Red struck first in the 10th minute of play when Kenyon's Peter Nolan was booked for a yellow card following a hard tackle inside the Denison box.  Junior Chris Olson (Arlington Heights, Ill./Rolling Meadows) was awarded the penalty kick and he converted the attempt to give his squad a 1-0 advantage.

That one-goal lead would stand until the 34th minute of play.  After one of Kenyon's best scoring chances was negated by the Denison defense, they quickly moved the ball to the other end of the field.  That's where first-year midfielder Jamie Wagner (Tornoto, Ontario/Upper Canada College) sent a clean pass from the left side of the field to senior Ish Ghodbane (St. Louis, Mo./Ladue Horton Watkins) who scored the goal from just over 10-yards away.

That 2-0 lead would be short lived after Denison's Johnson was issued Denison's only yellow card of the match in the 36th minute. On the ensuing free kick Kenyon's Miguel Barrera played the ball to the head of Peter Nolan who finished off a picture-perfect set piece for the Lords, cutting the DU lead in half at 2-1.

In the second half, Kenyon would go on to outshoot the Big Red 12-7, forcing three of those 12 shots on-goal.  Wagner played like a veteran, punching out cross after cross.  In the 81st minute, with tensions rising, Kenyon's Keith Dangarembwa was issued his second yellow card of the match, forcing the Lords to play the final nine minutes shorthanded.

Despite the disadvantage, Kenyon had two strong scoring chances over the final five minutes of play.  The first coming off a headed ball by J.J. Jemison that was saved by Wagner.  The final opportunity came with just 90 seconds to play when Alistair Flynn tried to slip a shot into the lower left corner of the goal.  That attempt went just wide and Denison managed to clear the ball into their half of the field for the final minute of play.

Denison improves to 10-7-1 overall while the No. 17 ranked Lords drop to 14-2-2.  Denison was led offensively by Ghodbane who took three shots while scoring one goal.  Kenyon outshot DU 22-11 and out-cornered them 4-0.