Luchini, Greene win PL weekly awards
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — After a four-goal performance to wrap up last week and a three-assist week, respectively, sophomore forward Josh Luchini and fifth-year midfielder/forward Alex Greene have been named Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week and Midfielder of the Week, announced by the league on Monday afternoon.
Luchini had his best offensive week to date, netting his first hat trick of his collegiate career on Saturday against Boston University, leading the Mountain Hawks to a 4-2 victory. Luchini scored goals in the 11th, 69th and 83rd minutes in Lehigh's come-from-behind victory to beat the Terriers. His second goal of the contest was the game-winning goal. On Tuesday against Penn, Luchini scored the game-winner in the 67th minute. Of his 10 total shots this week, eight of them were on goal and four were scores. Luchini now has eight goals on the year, surpassing his season total of six last season and has 14 for his career in his first 26 career games. The award is his third of the season after winning one on Sept. 9 and Sept. 16.
"You score three goals in a Division I and Patriot League soccer game, that's certainly notable and deserved because that doesn't happen often," said head coach Dean Koski. "I think Josh has shown from Day one this year that he's capable of scoring goals and our goal is to keep it going, but it's only going to get harder, not easier because everybody knows what he's capable of, so it will be interesting to see how he manages more attention. But I'm excited and happy for him."
It's been quite a while since we've seen Greene earn an accolade for an athletic performance after missing the entirety of 2018 with a knee injury, but it was only a matter of time until he got right back on top. Greene finished the last week with three total assists including one on a game-winning goal against Boston U. on Saturday. Against the Terriers, Greene had a hand on Stevo Bednarsky's first career goal in the 62nd minute followed by Luchini's second goal in the 69th. Against Penn on Tuesday, Greene provided the assist on Michael Tahiru's first career goal in the 19th minute against the Quakers. On the season, Greene now has three assists through five games and two of the three were on first-career tallies. This is Greene's first Midfielder of the Week award since winning it on Oct. 23, 2017.
"It's certainly been a long stretch for Alex and he has worked to get himself to the point where he can play more," said Koski. "And as a fifth-year senior, we want to make sure that we afford him every opportunity to contribute and he wants to. He's slowly getting back to form, he's not 100 percent yet, but I think his performance in his first start of the season was really solid.
"I think the weekly award is well deserved for him and I hope that it will help not only with feeling like he's back into it but also with his confidence. I'm excited for Alex as well because he's probably still only at 80 percent of what he's capable of and when he gets closer to 100, he's going to be very helpful to us."
Riding a three-game winning streak, Lehigh heads to Hamilton, N.Y. on Wednesday night to take on three-time defending Patriot League champion Colgate. The game will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network with coverage beginning at 7 p.m.
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