COLUMBUS, Ohio - Chris Hegngi and Joshua Breto teamed up to lead the Ohio State men's soccer team to a 2-1 win over Butler Friday evening at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Hegngi tallied both goals off assists from Breto, leading the Buckeyes to a 3-0-2 mark on the season and handing the Bulldogs their first loss of the year at 4-1-0.

The Buckeyes have not gone five games without a loss to start the season since 2001 when they opened 6-0-1. In addition to being Butler's first loss, the game also marks the first time this season that the Bulldogs surrendered more than one goal to an opponent. Butler had allowed just one goal in four games prior to Friday.

"I am very happy with the win today," head coach John Bluem said postgame. "We got some good play out of our team; in particular Chris Hegngi had a great game. He scored two very nice goals. Konrad [Warzycha] was very close to a goal and I thought we were in control of the match ... It got a little scary towards the end of the game, but I thought we stayed in control."

The game started off even with teams swapping possession for much of the first 30 minutes of action. In the 32nd minute, however, Breto collected the ball in the right corner of the field and fed Hegngi just inside the penalty area. The Silver Spring, Md., native launched a rocket that skimmed just inside the right post to give Ohio State the lead in the first half for the third time this season.

Doug Verhoff nearly stretched the lead to two with two minutes remaining in the period, but a nimble Butler defender was credited with a team save after getting his feet on it just in front of the goal mouth and the teams headed into intermission with the 1-0 score.

Coming out the half, both teams fired off a couple shots before the Breto-Hegngi combo came through once again early in the 58th minute. This time, Dalton Summers passed the ball through to Breto along the right side of the penalty area, who sent a centering pass into Hegngi about 10 yards out. The rookie forward got a foot on it and shot it into the lower right corner.

Andrew Magill and Konrad Warzycha narrowly missed scoring opportunities down the stretch, with Warzycha drawing a collective gasp when he hit the post from 30 yards out four minutes after the second goal. After bouncing off the right post, the ball was loose in the goal box with the goalkeeper off his line, but no Buckeye player was able to reach it in time to capitalize.

Ohio State made several substitutions with about 12 minutes remaining and Butler took advantage of the confusion on a pair of back-to-back corner kicks. Boris Gatzky played the corner into the box for Kyle Pateros to get a head on and send into right half of the goal to close the gap to 2-1.

The Buckeyes buckled down, however, and finished out regulation for the win. Shots were even at 10 on the night, while Ohio State held a 5-3 advantage in corner kicks. Sophomore goalkeeper Ryan Dalton tallied four saves - two in each half - and improved to 2-0-1 on the year. David Tiemstra and Verhoff were stellar in their central defender roles, thwarting several Bulldog offensive movements by clearing the ball to the midfield.

The Buckeyes return to action at approximately 2:30 p.m. Sunday against SIU Edwardsville. The match follows the women's team's game vs. Toledo that begins at noon. Admission for both games is free.