GRANVILLE, Ohio (September 10, 2022) – For the third time in its first four matches of the new 2022 season, the Denison University men's soccer team played its first ever match against a new opponent. This time around it was Grove City College as the Big Red finished with a 2-1 come-from-behind victory at home against the Wolverines inside Deeds Field-Piper Stadium.

Down 1-0 at halftime, a cross by Cameron McIntosh less than five minutes into the second half led to a deflection in the box, and the loose ball went right to Ethan Miracle, who finished with the score to notch his fourth goal in four matches so far this season.

After that, Denison nearly took the lead in the 56th minute when a header by Vitor Rocha was just saved by a diving Grove City keeper, Jesse Grayschock.

Then in the 58th minute, Denison somehow averted disaster as after goalkeeper Tommy Prokos dove to the ground trying to stop the ball on a cross, Grove City still came up with the ball and it took a defensive save on a bicycle kick by Cole Trigg to keep the ball out of the goal before Prokos could get back up to punch the ball away and keep it tied.

With under 10 minutes left in the match, Ben Goeller came up with a great steal in the Grove City half of the field, passed it to Jake Krueger and then got it right back, took the ball downfield, weaved in between two defenders and finished to the bottom left of the goal for his first score of the year.

Less than a minute and a half later, Prokos had to make his fourth save of the match to help preserve the win for the Big Red.

Denison outshot Grove City 24-13 while both teams had six shots on goal and had at least eight corner kicks. The Big Red were led in the shot category by Miracle with six shots and Rocha with four.

The key for Grove City all match was its execution on corner kicks as the Wolverines took the early lead with a corner kick followed by a header goal just over two minutes into the match.

In the seventh minute, Denison's first shot from Miracle was blocked, and then in the ninth minute, Prokos had to make a save on another header from the Wolverines off a corner kick.

The Big Red had a couple of chances to try and find the equalizer late in the first half as after a pretty pass into the box by Phil Koutsaftis in the 34th minute, Miracle had another good chance to score before his attempt bounced off of Grayschock.

After a cross by Jackson Briggs, the shot by Rohan Tripathy hit the post in the 38th minute, and then a corner kick by Luke Mattessich in the 40th minute led to a header that missed high by Trigg.

In the final two minutes of the first half, Grove City almost flipped the script on Denison and nearly made it a two-goal differential as another corner kick led to another header, but fortunately Prokos was able to grab that one for his second save of the opening period.

"We started to look a little more like ourselves today," said Head Coach Brandon Bianco. "I'm proud of the team remaining positive and having a strong sense of urgency to find two second-half goals. We got good contributions from some guys off the bench today and we'll look to build off today as we go into two big matches next week."

With the win, Denison improved to 2-0-2 while Grove City dropped to 2-2-0 with the loss. The Wolverines previously suffered their first loss of the season in their first road match of the year last Wednesday in a 3-2 decision at Oberlin College.

Next up, Denison will play at Capital University at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 13, at Purmort Field at Bernlohr Stadium in Bexley, Ohio.