ITHACA, N.Y. – The Mountain Hawks tallied two second half goals in a comeback effort to defeat Cornell, 2-1, Friday night for their first road win of the season. Lehigh has now won the last five meetings with the Big Red to take a 9-8-3 lead in the all-time series.

After Cornell (0-2-1) took a 1-0 lead in the 44th minute, Lehigh (2-2) faced an uphill battle to start the second half. The Brown and White was up to the challenge as leading goal-scorer Mark Forrest and freshman Bratislav Petkovic netted tallies in a spirited second half comeback.

“I thought our guys came out in the second half with a greater commitment, a sharpened focused on the details and also brought some more grit to their game. We addressed some issues at halftime and I was very pleased with how our guys responded to the challenge,” said head coach Dean Koski. “We are continuing to learn and come together as a team with each game, tonight was another step forward in that process. We are far from where we want to be, but we definitely made some strides in the right direction tonight.”

Lehigh controlled much of the pace in the first half, out-shooting Cornell 8-6 and producing a 3-0 advantage in corners, but suffered an unfortunate break and fell behind less than two minutes prior to the halftime whistle. The Mountain Hawks came out with a renewed energy in the second half and established a 4-0 shot advantage in the first five minutes before finally finding pay dirt.

Getting it done for LU was its top offensive duo of Forrest and Doyle Tuvesson in the 51st minute. Tuvesson connected with Forrest and set the striker up for his team-leading fourth goal of the season to tie the game, 1-1.

Lehigh remained on the hunt and was eventually rewarded for the effort. Again, Forrest was involved in the scoring action, this time as the set-up man for Petkovic who netted home the eventual game winner in the 67th minute. For Petkovic, the goal was his first collegiate point while making his first career start for the Brown and White. With the assist, Forrest now has two multi-point games on the season.

The Mountain Hawks remained on the offensive, racking up five more shots before the final whistle. The defense also did their part, pitching a second half shutout for the second-straight game as net minder Will Smith made two of his three saves in the second stanza.

In total, Lehigh out-shot Cornell 21-15, with a 5-4 advantage in shots on goal. It is the highest shot total by a Lehigh team since a 30-shot performance against Bucknell on October 31, 2015.

Lehigh wraps up the final leg if its three game road stand next Thursday with a trip to Penn for a 7 p.m. kickoff with the Quakers.

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