Ripon Beats Lawerence 3-2

APPLETON, Wis. - In just their third conference game of the season, the Ripon men's soccer team has already won more MWC games than all of last season. The Red Hawks defeated Lawrence Wednesday, 3-2, thanks to a trio of second half goals.

Lawrence (2-4-2, 0-1-1 MWC) kicked off the scoring with the lone goal in the first half, coming off the foot of Paul Senner in the 39th minute. That was Senner's fourth goal of the season, which was assisted by both Hashim Allah-Morad and Stephen Exarhos.

In the second half, Ripon (2-4-1, 2-1-0 MWC) tied the score at one when Kyle Wolff netted his first score of the season on an assist from Zach Hershoff in the 53rd minute. Hershoff recorded his second assist of the game 13 minutes later when Vince Butitta scored the first goal of his Red Hawk career to give Ripon its first lead of the day. Butitta added the second goal of his Red Hawk career in the 75th minute as insurance, which would be much needed in this game. Lawrence's Colin Vize cut the lead to 3-2 in the 84th minute when he found the net on a pass from a corner kick. Ripon bared down however, holding the Vikings scoreless in the final six and a half minutes to secure the victory.

Ripon freshman Adam Haefner played all 90 minutes between the pipes, saving five shots. Lawrence's Andrew Finley also saved five shots, while playing the entire game as well. Both teams shot the ball 14 times.

The Red Hawks will try to continue this momentum Saturday, as they'll travel to UW-Platteville for a non-conference match-up. That game will begin at 1 p.m. in Platteville, Wis.