WORCESTER, Mass. – Trailing 1-0 in the 15th minute, the Lehigh women's soccer team came back with a vengeance, scoring the equalizer in the 28th minute and game-winning goal in the 85th minute to defeat Holy Cross 2-1 in the regular season finale on Friday evening. Junior Kayla Arestivo scored the game-tying goal while classmate Sidonie Warnecker scored her second game-winning goal in as many career games at Holy Cross. With the win, the Mountain Hawks improve to 3-6-0 in league play and keep their Patriot League Tournament hopes alive heading into Saturday. If Loyola loses or ties at Lafayette, or American at Army West Point ends in a tie, Lehigh will clinch its third straight Patriot League Tournament berth.
 
"The early goal really didn't worry me that much," said Lehigh head coach Eric Lambinus. "I was hoping that we could get a goal in the first half because we were pressuring, and when we scored, I was pretty confident. I thought we deserved to win. Holy Cross played really well. They challenged us. A lot of their free kicks, corners and long throws were tough for us to deal with. That's how they scored their goal."
 
Junior goalkeeper Sam Miller was the story early on, making two strong stops, to help stave off the Crusaders' attack. Holy Cross opened with two of the game's first three shots, and the first three corner kicks, the third of which led to Carly Flahive putting home her fifth goal of the season at 14:19.
 
Just under two minutes later, senior Clare Severe nearly scored the equalizer, but Holy Cross goalkeeper Sophia Lettieri made the deflection out of bounds for a corner. A little later in the half, Letteri couldn't stop an Arestivo strike. The junior took a feed from classmate Maggie Wadsworth, made a move into the box and fired inside the left post to even the score at 27:38.
 

 

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After Holy Cross jumped out to an early lead in the 15th minute, Kayla Arestivo had this answer in the 28th minute.

11:13 PM - Oct 26, 2018

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The Mountain Hawks came out of halftime with strong pressure, but couldn't find the back of the net. Later in the stanza, momentum began to shift towards Holy Cross, but despite being pressured, the Mountain Hawks' defense did not allow a shot on goal over the game's final 41:25.
 
Meanwhile, on the other side of the field, a succession of Lehigh passes led to the go-ahead (and what proved to be game-winning goal). Off a throw-in, sophomore Ally Friedman found senior Sabrina Mertz, who fed freshman Courtney Supp near the end line. Supp made a quick touch across to Warnecker, who buried what proved to be the game-winner. It marked Warnecker's first goal since Oct. 22, 2016 at Bucknell after missing all of last season due to injury. Warnecker scored the game's only goal in Lehigh's 1-0 win at Holy Cross earlier in 2016.
 

 

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Two career games at Holy Cross. Two game-winning goals for Sidonie Warnecker. Check out her beautiful 85th minute tally tonight to keep the Mountain Hawks' @PatriotLeague Tournament hopes alive heading into Saturday!

11:02 PM - Oct 26, 2018

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"I am really happy for Sidonie," said Lambinus. "She's worked really hard to come back from injury. It was a little bit of a slow start this season and she battled through. I thought today was probably her best game, especially in the second half, and she deserved the goal from the work she did."
 
Final shots were 16-10 in favor of Lehigh while the Crusaders held a 6-2 edge in corner kicks. Miller finished with five saves for the Mountain Hawks across Letteri, who made four.
 
Now, Lehigh waits to see its postseason fate. The Mountain Hawks could still finish as the No. 5 seed, No. 6 seed or out of the Patriot League Tournament altogether. If they do advance, they would compete quarterfinal round on Tuesday at Boston University, Navy or Bucknell.
 
"We've grown a lot over the course of this year," said Lambinus. "We're better now than we were at the beginning of the year; we said that that was one of our goals. We just kept working. Hopefully the Soccer Gods can give us a chance to show what we can do."
 
Like Lehigh Women's Soccer on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.

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