The Lehman College men's soccer team, playing in their third NCAA tournament in the programs history traveled to WIlliamsport, PA to battle the Warriors of Lycoming in the opening round of the tournament. Lycoming (19-2) defeated Lehman (13-5-1) 2-0.
In near freezing temperatures, the two teams battled through an action packed opening 45 minutes with Lycoming and Lehman having several good chances. The Warriors got on the board first in the 17
th minute when Kyle Stettenbauer worked a give and go in the box with Abdullahi Abdi. The score stayed that way till half time. The Warriors outshot the Lightning 10-5 in the opening half with each teams goal keeper recording two saves.
Lycoming controlled most of the second half outshooting the Lightning 14-3 and doubled their advantage when Sainclair Tueno bounced on a loose ball in the box and beat Mulholland to the far post in the 61
st minute to make the score 2-0. The Lightning's best chance in the second half came off the foot of
Salh Alzubidi. His free kick was saved by Chris Solecki who recorded three saves on the afternoon.
"We had a great year, " commented Head Coach
Toma Gojcevic. "Our team played well, just not well enough. What this game showed is just how close we are to really beating teams like Lycoming and making a deep run in this tournament. The greatest thing about sports is there is always next year."
Lycoming will move onto the second round as they host the winner of Drew/F&M later today. The second round will be contested at 1:00 PM tomorrow.
