BETHLEHEM, Pa. –  The Mountain Hawks had the first three shots of the game, two corners, and scored first in the 55th minute, but gave up the next two goals to Drexel in a 2-1 overtime loss in Lehigh's home opener Monday night at the Ulrich Sports Complex. After the teams exited the field at halftime with no score, sophomore Trevor Koski netted the first goal of his career thanks to a shot off a headed pass from senior Mark Forrest from the right side of the box to give Lehigh a 1-0 lead early in the second half.
 
"I thought that we had a better second half than we did first half," Lehigh head coach Dean Koski said. "We got our feet underneath us, I thought Drexel did a really good job in the first half of bottling us up and not giving us chance to really generate anything."
 
"We made some adjustments that I thought were the right adjustments, and I liked the way we came out and we got the goal," Koski said. Once you get the goal, you gotta be able to lock it down. I think that's where we need to get better."
 
Lehigh had a chance to extend its lead at the 67-minute mark, but Blaise Milanek's attempt sailed wide of the net.
 
Matthias Ebbesen gave the Dragons the equalizer in the 70th minute off an assist from Chris Carroll, which proved to be the final goal of the regulation period.
 

Drexel had chances to score late in the second half, as they pressured the Mountain Hawk zone, but junior goalkeeper Will Smith made four of his seven key saves to keep the score knotted at 1-1.
 
With the Dragons threatening to score for much of the second half, offensive chances were hard to come by for Lehigh.
 
"I think we settled a little bit too much," said Koski. "And I don't want to say we got comfortable, we just have to understand the way we need to respond.
 
"I think that's the leadership on the field. Some of our more experienced players on the field need to communicate with our younger guys what they need from them and there's some that are just learning to play with one another. But I'm confident that we'll get to where we need to go."
 
The momentum of Drexel's first goal late in the second half bled over to overtime, as the Dragons managed two shots on Smith, one missing the net, and the other finding the back of it at 93:10 from Griffin Mallas.
 
Drexel out-shot Lehigh 18-17, also winning the battle of shots on goal with nine compared to the Mountain Hawks' five.
 
The Dragons had nine corner kicks, while the Mountain Hawks had four.

With the loss, the Mountain Hawks fall to 0-2 to start the season, while the Dragons improve to 2-0.
 
The next game for Lehigh is Saturday at 4 p.m., as the Mountain Hawks head back on the road to Washington D.C. to square off with George Washington.
 
Like Lehigh Men's Soccer on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.

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