BOSTON — Junior Matthew Peralta and senior Mark Forrest were on a whole other level today for the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, in their 2-1 overtime victory over Boston University at historic Nickerson Field Saturday evening.
 
"Matty (Peralta) came into the game with a lot of energy," said head coach Dean Koski. "We needed guys to step up that haven't had opportunities to play and he definitely contributed."
 
"Matty Peralta and Mark Forrest were both phenomenal tonight. Mark really came through with the header late that got us into overtime, but Matty's cross to Mark was just a great finish, I really liked the ball that was played there."
 
Forrest and Peralta both had major hands in how Lehigh won the game in the end, as Forrest's header thanks to Peralta on the assist tied the game up in the 79th minute and ended up being the moment that forced overtime for Lehigh.
 
After his assist that helped the Mountain Hawks get to extra time, Peralta scored the golden goal in the 98th minute off a Michael Tahiru assist to give the Mountain Hawks their fifth road victory of the season and stay undefeated in Patriot League play so far.
 
There was a ton of offense for Lehigh, including six shots just from Forrest alone, the team won the overall shot battle 10-6. But it was the defense that ended up keeping the Mountain Hawks in the game once again this season, even though there were a lot of key contributors to that back four that missed Saturday's match due to injury.
 
"Luckily, we still had a lot of our starters and two important subs who really stepped up. It's important to have a healthy team, especially against these Patriot League teams," said Koski.
 
The Mountain Hawks allowed a BU goal between the pipes in the 62^nd minute, which proved to be Lehigh's only blemish of the contest.
 
"Their goal was a deflection, but we didn't get rattled by it and we didn't give them too many more looks after that," Koski said. "I felt good about how we played them. Credit to our goalkeeper, Will Smith for helping out our defense and Matt Morana for coming in and playing a great game in his first start in five months."
 
Smith allowed just the one goal, but made two saves with his goals against average currently settled in at 0.96.
 
Weirdly enough, the Mountain Hawks are 5-1 on the road and still searching for their first win at the Ulrich Sports Complex this season. However, Koski isn't concerned with why his team can't seem to win at home, he's just glad they are exceptional on the road and the best team in the Patriot League this season in that area.
 
"I really can't put my finger on why we are having so much success on the road," said Koski. "We have all been doing this long enough to get into a routine and know what we need to do when we're not at home.
 
We know where our hotel is going to be, the food we eat, and how rested mentally and physically we get when we travel. Mark (Forrest), Matty (Morana), Oscar (Greene), Will (Smith) have all done this before, so they really help the younger guys prepare themselves when we travel to all these places."
 
Next up, the Mountain Hawks host the two-time defending Patriot League tournament champions in Colgate. Playing in overtime games like the one Lehigh just played on Saturday helps prepare them for the next step.
 
"We definitely have confidence going into this game. It's always good to go into games feeling that we can compete with anyone," Koski said. "We definitely need a healthy starting lineup, that's a priority. Colgate is going to bring their best. We have a lot of respect for them, so we're not going to go into the game with a mentality that it's our game to win, because we need to earn it."
 
Wednesday's match will kick off at 7 p.m. and will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network.
 
Like Lehigh Men's Soccer on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
 
 
 

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