Denison University played solid both offensively and defensively as they battled early adversity en route to garnering their first victory of the 2010 season.  The Big Red edged the Polar Bears of Ohio Northern University 3-2 on Sunday afternoon in Granville.

The two teams were engaged in an even battle early in the match.  Ohio Northern opened the scoring at the 21:46 mark when Nathan Bascom settled a Christian Huelsman cross in front of the net and buried it into the lower left corner of the goal.  The goal came on the Bears' fourth shot on goal and fifth overall shot of the game.

Roughly 10 minutes later, Chris Olson (Arlington Heights, Ill./Rolling Meadows), the owner of DU's only goal up to that point, capitalized on a defensive turnover and scored from 13 yards out.  Olsen's equalizer came in the 32nd minute.

Ohio Northern had a shot to regain the lead when Huelsman drew a foul in the box at 39:30.  However, a spectacular diving stop by freshman goalie Matt Wagner (Nicholasville, Ky./Lexington Catholic) kept the game deadlocked at 1-1 as the two squads entered the half.

Wagner became the first DU keeper since Nick Saper (2002) to deny two penalty kicks in one season.  Saper denied both Wittenberg and Kenyon goals via PK in back-to-back games during the 2002 season.

Just 4:16 into the second frame Olson sent a ball to Lenny Mills (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair) who was streaking down the left side of the field.  Mills out ran an ONU defender and fired a cross-goal shot past keeper Mac Church from just two yards out.  The go-ahead goal was Mills' first of the season and gave Denison a 2-1 edge.

The Polar Bears continued to apply offensive pressure as they searched for a game-tying goal of their own.  However, in the 77th minute their task of knotting the game up became a little more difficult when the Big Red found the back of the net off a Jamie Wagner (Toronto, Ontario/Upper Canada College) corner kick.  Wagner's boot sailed from right to left over the goal, was redirected to the front of the net by senior Ish Ghodbane (St. Louis, Mo./Ladue Horton Watkins) and finished off by sophomore Ryan Torgersen (Spring, Texas/Klein).

As was the case for the majority of the match, ONU continued to aggressively attacked the Denison defense.  In the 86th minute, Bascom fired a shot that was knocked away by Wagner.  However, the Polar Bears' Cameron Johnson was right there to punch in the rebound and trim the deficit to 3-2 with 4:33 left to play.

Ohio Northern was able to rattle off three more shots in the final four and half minutes, but the stingy Big Red defense kept the ball from getting behind Wagner.

The Polar Bears outshot DU 23-18, including a 12-7 edge in shots on goal.  Wagner finished the day with a career-high 10 saves, while Church made four stops for ONU.

Denison's first win of the season improves their record to 1-2, while Ohio Northern falls to 0-2.  The Big Red closes out their season-opening homestand on Wednesday (Sept. 8) when they take on Otterbein University at 7:30 p.m. on Barclay-Thomsen Field.