UNIVERSITY PARK, PA – Hartwick had its season come to an end on Thursday in a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Penn State Nittany Lions on a bitter cold night at Jeffrey Field in University Park, PA in the NCAA Tournament First Round.
            Hartwick opened the scoring 46 seconds into the second half on a Jhevaughn Beckford (Kingston, Jamaica/Wolmer’s Boys’ School) goal. The lead lasted 13 minutes, 38 seconds as the Nittany Lions tied the match on a Mikey Minutillo tally. They added their second with 16:20 left in the game on a Brett Gravatt goal.
            In the first half, the Nittany Lions held an 8-2 edge in shots. They had the opening opportunity of the match less than a minute in as Mikey Munutillo put a shot just wide of the post on Tom Buckner’s (Oxfordshire, England/Henley College) right. Neither team produced much for the next 26 minutes. Dean Fowler (Sydney, Australia/Colo) had a chance for the Hawks with 18 minutes left. A ball was played over the top of the defense to the top of the Penn State box to Chris Walter (Amherst, NY/Nichols School). He took the ball off his chest and played it to his left to Fowler who ran onto it and struck his shot to the far post wide from 18 yards.
            Six minutes later, Penn State nearly went ahead after a big scramble in front of the Hartwick goal. Following a chipped ball near the goal line, Buckner went up for the ball but couldn’t come down with it. While on the ground, Penn State had two cracks at it but both shots were blocked inside the six.
            The Nittany Lions had another two scoring opportunities with under nine minutes left before halftime. Brian James served a low cross into the box on the left side of the Hartwick goal. Drew Klingenberg got to it first in front but he put his shot over the bar. Five and a half minutes later, a long service from James to the far post was met by Klingenberg but he hammered a one-timer wide.
            Buckner made two saves in the opening 45 minutes. Both teams had two corners.
            The Hawks wasted little time breaking the tie as they netted the go-ahead strike in the first minute of the second session. A Penn State foul near the sideline 20 seconds into the half resulted in a Hartwick free kick 45 yards from the Nittany Lion goal. Jack Miller (Commack, NY/Commack) served a cross which defender Kit Tregear (Brighton, England/BHASVIC) headed into the box for Beckford. He fought his way through a defender and finished high past the arms of Penn State keeper Andrew Wolverton to the delight of the raucous Hartwick fan section which made the four and a half hour trip. It was Beckford’s fourth tally of the season.
            “The goal was an opportunity to get Kit forward for the set piece,” said Hartwick head coach John Scott at the postgame press conference. “He’s done his job winning the ball and knocking it into a dangerous area and Jhevaughn was sharp in the moment to get to the ball and fire past the keeper. We were delighted to see the goal come at that stage in the match.”
            Penn State evened the match on its next opportunity on goal in the 60^th minute. Klingenberg sent Minutillo through and he broke in one-versus-one with Buckner from 25 yards out. Minutillo slipped the ball past a charging Buckner and into the goal for a tie game. It was the first goal the Hawks had surrendered in over 329 consecutive minutes.
            Roughly five minutes later, the Hawks were dealt a blow as Jamie O’Grady (Falkirk, Scotland/Falkirk) picked up his second yellow card and they were forced to play with 10 men for the final 25:55 of the match.
            Just under 10 minutes later, the Nittany Lions registered the game-winner on outstanding individual effort from Gravatt. On the left side of Buckner near the corner of the field, Gravatt feinted a shot to move past one Hartwick defender, then faked another and brought the ball inside to his left foot. From 16 yards away, he sent a perfect bending shot inside the far post leaving Buckner absolutely no chance and the hosts were in front.
            The Hawks refused to back down as they went forward to get the equalizer. Less than four minutes after the Penn State tally, a David Styles’ (Bognor Regis, England/St. Phillip Howard) service from the right was met by Beckford in the box. He didn’t get a clean header on it from eight yards away and it was collected by Wolverton.
            With a minute and a half remaining, Fowler played a low ball from the right into the mixer. Senior Rio Dhat (Auckland, New Zealand/Epping Boys) had an opportunity at a shot but didn’t get a good foot on it. The ball continued to Walter who sent his shot over the bar for the Hawks’ final chance.
            “Even we went down to 10 we were getting forward,” added Scott. “We were able to get guys in position, getting crosses in.”
            Penn State ended the match with a 17-7 edge in shots. Buckner finished with three saves. Wolverton made two stops for Penn State.
            “The guys can be proud of the fact that we didn’t throw the towel in,” Scott stated. “We kept going forward and we gave Penn State a good game for 90 minutes.”
            The Hawks end their season with a 6-10-4 record. The Hawks were making their 24^th NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 2005.

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