Lehigh outlasts Penn with 2-1 road win

September 24, 2019

PHILADELPHIA — The offense was on display Tuesday night as the Lehigh men's soccer team scored twice en route to a 2-1 victory on the road over Penn at Rhodes Field. Michael Tahiru and Josh Luchini provided the goals that proved to be the difference makers in Lehigh's victory, improving the team's record to 5-2-0 after the win.

"I thought we played the way we wanted to play tonight," said head coach Dean Koski. "Penn's a good team, we played them in the spring and they have definitely improved from then. We have also improved, so I thought it was a pretty evenly played first half and the result showed that.

"We made one made one minor adjustment in the second half and I thought that guys came off the bench and did well for us, but ultimately I thought it was a good result against a really good Ivy League opponent on the road where we've had three really tough road games in the last two weeks, so it's nice to be able to come back home."

The Mountain Hawks scored first in the 19th minute after a crafty pass from Alex Greene found Michael Tahiru to put Lehigh up, 1-0. The goal is Tahiru's second of the season after scoring his first career goal at American on Saturday. The assist is Greene's first of the year and his first since the 2017 season.

19' | LEHIGH GOAL! Alex Greene dances around a defender and dishes it right to Michael Tahiru, who scores his second career goal in the same amount of games. Lehigh leads Penn, 1-0. #GoLehigh pic.twitter.com/8LoUQXdOwu
— Lehigh Men's Soccer (@LehighMSoccer) September 24, 2019

"I think Michael is finally coming back into form," said Koski. "He's struggled with an injury in the better part of a year and a half, two years now since high school. Until we were able to remedy that last winter, he's almost spent the last nine, ten months rehabbing the injury.

"So I think he's finally getting his legs, his timing under him, I think he's finally getting into the form that he's capable of playing in and that helps us because he makes us better. He's had a really good last two weeks for us and I think that he's only going to get better."

Just seconds later, Penn answered back with the equalizer from Joey Bhangdia, who launched the ball from the top of the box and past Will Smith for the score.

At the end of the first half, it was Lehigh who led the shots battle, 8-4 after the first 45 minutes of action. The Mountain Hawks ended up tallying three of those eight shots on goal as Trevor Koski had one in the sixth minute followed by a Tahiru chance in the ninth minute. Despite trailing in the shots column during the first half, Penn out-kicked Lehigh on corners in the first, 4-1, although it wasn't able to capitalize on those chances.

"I thought we didn't do a good job of limiting Penn's corner kicks in the first half and a lot of that is just positioning and decision making by our backs," Koski said. "But we addressed that at halftime and I thought that they made appropriate adjustments in terms of making sure that we're dropping earlier and not giving up positions where they get corners.

"But our backs turned out to be consistent, they didn't really give Penn many good looks and chances on those corner kicks in the second half."

Fast forward to late in the second half, it was Tahiru once again on the play, this time delivering the pass to Josh Luchini for what ended up being the game-winning goal in the 67th minute. The goal was Luchini's fifth of the season, upping his career total to 11 through his first 25 career games. The assist was Tahiru's second of the season and has six points through seven matches this season.

67' | LEHIGH GOAL!! Michael Tahiru goes on the 2-on-1 and swings it out to Josh Luchini who rockets the ball past the keeper for the goal. It's Luchini's fifth of the season as Lehigh takes a 2-1 lead over Penn. #GoLehigh pic.twitter.com/OeTTlKRb2C
— Lehigh Men's Soccer (@LehighMSoccer) September 25, 2019

The second half once again belonged to the Mountain Hawks offensively, who registered eight shots again. Lehigh ends up finishing the game with 16 total shots, six on goal. Both Luchini and Tahiru had four total shots, while Ikem Mbalewe had two off the bench, Stevo Bednarsky had two and Trevor Koski, Natan Rosen, Tyler Dressman and Meredith each had one.

Lehigh's defense shined on the pitch, especially in the second half, keeping the Quakers out of the goal for the final 71:50 of the game. New faces stepped up for the Mountain Hawks including freshmen Bryce Meredith and Dominic Flowers, who helped keep the momentum on their side for the remainder of the contest. Despite allowing a goal early in the first half, senior goalkeeper Will Smith made two saves for his fifth win of the season.

"Of course, there are always things we can improve on," said Koski. "But I think our guys are really starting to embrace the way we want to play, understand the way we want to play and make better decisions in the critical moments of the game.

"Now we're almost halfway through the season after making these adjustments and we're making improvements, that's what we have to look at."

The Mountain Hawks finish the three-game road swing with a 2-1 record following back-to-back wins over American and Penn. Lehigh now will get ready for the Patriot League home opener at the Ulrich Sports Complex Saturday evening against Boston University.

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