Photo Credit: Peter Nelson
By: Caleb Friddell
In what was almost a blowout, the Milligan Buffaloes defeated the Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs 3-1 to win the conference title on Wednesday.
“A huge positive is that this was the second place team in the conference, and we won decisively,” said senior, left defensive back Ben Richardson.
The Buffaloes got off to a rough start with three missed shots early in the game.
The first goal at Anglin Field came in the 28th minute from Chris Ochieng. To secure their lead Nimley Robertson scored another goal about five minutes later. The Buffaloes seemed to gain complete confidence when Sandre Wilson scored in the first half with less than ten minutes remaining.
Alex Haun, Milligan’s goalkeeper, made six saves in the first half.
Tennessee Wesleyan tried to comeback late in the second half when Pedro Allen scored in the 78th minute.
Both teams created several scoring opportunities late in the second half, but neither could capitalize.
Coach Adam Laney, who has coached at Milligan for four years, expected the game to be a good hard battle.
“This game determines the conference champions and who the number one seed is in going into the conference tournament,” Laney said before the game. “To win, we’ve got to maintain our focus for the whole game.”
This win not only avenged last year’s loss to the Bulldogs, but also gave a boost to the Buffs as they look ahead to the tournament.
“The main negative from the game is that we conceded a goal, we need a better defensive focus,” Richardson said.
Milligan (6-0 AAC, 11-4 overall), in achieving the top seed in the conference, will host the tournament, which is to be announced.
The Buffs will host their last game against Lees-McRae College on Saturday afternoon at 2:30.
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