Lehigh beats Loyola 4-2 to earn PLT berth
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Lehigh men's soccer team jumped out to a 3-0 lead, which proved too much for Loyola to overcome as the Mountain Hawks downed the previously first-place Greyhounds 4-2 on Saturday evening. With the win, Lehigh improves to 10-5-1 overall, 5-2-1 in league play, officially clinching its third Patriot League Tournament berth in the last four seasons. Saturday was Senior Night as Joe Bogan, Doyle Tuvesson, Jack Miskel, Tatsu Otani, David Zipkin, Kevin Klinkenberg and John Marc Charpentierwere recognized at halftime.
"It's an important three points against arguably one of the best teams in the league right now," said Lehigh head coach Dean Koski. "Getting a home win on Senior Night is nice, but honestly, we just wanted to get the three points. I thought we were very good offensively. I really liked how we played for 90 minutes."
Junior Mark Forrest led the offense with a pair of penalty-kick goals to reach 15 goals on the season. Tuvesson tallied a goal and assist while freshman Bratislav Petkovic also scored for the Mountain Hawks.
Loyola tallied the game's first three shots, but it was Lehigh who got on the board first. In the 20th minute, Miskel was tripped in the box, then Forrest converted the penalty kick for his 14th goal of the season to give Lehigh a 1-0 advantage.
The Greyhounds outshot the Mountain Hawks 5-2 the rest of the half, but Lehigh sophomore goalkeeper Will Smith made a pair of saves to preserve the Mountain Hawks' 1-0 lead following 45 minutes of play.
Lehigh doubled its lead at the 57:46 mark as a sequence of passes went from junior Alex Greene to Forrest to Tuvesson as Tuvesson's goal gave the Mountain Hawks a 2-0 advantage.
It was Tuvesson who set up Lehigh's third goal as his centering feed led to Petkovic's third goal of the season and a 3-0 Lehigh lead at 78:54.
Just over a minute later, Loyola converted a penalty kick to pull within 3-1, but just 18 seconds after that, Greene was tripped in the box, leading to Forrest's second penalty-kick goal of the game. Just like that, Lehigh was back in front by three, 4-1, at the 80:15 mark.
The Greyhounds added a late goal in the final minute, but it wasn't nearly enough.
Final shots were 16-12 in favor of Loyola while the Greyhounds held a 7-1 edge in corner kicks. Smith stopped three-of-four shots sent his way before being relieved by Bogan, who made one save.
"All the seniors, whether they've started or come off the bench, they all played key roles throughout their careers and were very important to this team," said Koski. "You have to lean on your seniors in their final year, and we have - in practices, in the locker room and on the bus. It's a tremendous group."
Standing in third place in the league standings, Lehigh will close out the regular season at Holy Cross next Saturday at 1 p.m.
"Holy Cross will be hungry to get in the postseason," said Koski. "We don't want to overlook Holy Cross at all because we want to finish as high as we can. It's an important game for us."
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