Team effort leads Lehigh past Lafayette

October 14, 2017

EASTON, Pa. – Freshman Ally Friedman got the Mountain Hawks on the board in the 29th minute while sophomore Maggie Wadsworth added insurance in the 86th minute as the Lehigh women's soccer team (7-3-4, 3-1-2 Patriot League) picked up a 2-0 road victory at archrival Lafayette on Saturday evening. In between, sophomore goalkeeper Sam Miller made a huge save on a penalty kick in the 83rd minute and less than three minutes later, Wadsworth effectively iced the game with her third goal of the season.

"I'll give a lot of credit to Lafayette," said Lehigh head coach Eric Lambinus. "I thought they played really well today. I felt in the first half, we controlled the tempo. I thought we had a deserved goal. In the second half, they came out on fire and we had to adapt to it. We struggled a little bit, then we settled down. I thought we had control of the ball, but then we gave up the penalty kick. Usually the advantage goes to the shooter, but not us. We feel pretty confident Sam is going to make a save more often than not. We're happy that she did, then we were able to put the game away."

The Mountain Hawks came out firing, tallying four of the game's first five shots. Lehigh's fourth shot found the back of the net as Vitello corralled a rebound and made a feed to Friedman to her right, who lofted a ball over Lafayette goalkeeper Maggie Pohl and into the left corner of the net for her second goal of the season. Friedman's other goal also opened the scoring in a road Patriot League contest, at Army West Point in a 2-0 victory.

Miller made her first save of the game in the 31st minute, but she was called upon to make some big saves in the second half - and she came through. Just 3:11 into the second, Miller made a save. She added stops in the 71st, 83rd and 88th minutes. Lafayette was awarded a penalty kick at the 82:39 mark, but Miller made a diving stop to her right to deny Lauren Johnson before covering the rebound. Miller has now saved 3-of-4 opponent penalty kick attempts this season.

Lehigh erased any doubt at the 85:19 mark as junior Sabrina Mertz found Wadsworth, who blasted a shot from near the top of the box past new Lafayette goalkeeper Kelly O'Brien, giving the Mountain Hawks a 2-0 advantage, which proved to be the final.

Final shots were even at 11 while the Mountain Hawks held a 4-2 edge in corner kicks. Miller finished with five saves across a pair of Lafayette goalkeepers, who combined for three.

"It's always a double win [to beat Lafayette]," said Lambinus. "You have the pressure of the double loss, so it's almost like double or nothing with everything because we always know what our (Lehigh Athletics') record against Lafayette is for the year. Getting a win is great for the rivalry, but then it's also three points in the Patriot League. They were right behind us, so it opens up a bigger gap and it allows us to keep jumping up the standings.'

Lehigh returns to action on Wednesday when it travels to Bucknell to face the Bison at 7 p.m.

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Team effort leads Lehigh past Lafayette

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