Lehigh men’s soccer beats American 2-1 in first Patriot League season game

The Mountain Hawks start off 1-0 in their league play after a 2-1 win against No. 14 American University on Saturday night at the Ulrich Complex.

A pair of goals from junior midfielder Brian Vail gave the Mountain Hawks the edge they needed to capture the win.

It was close the whole game as Lehigh was only up by one at halftime on Vail’s header off a corner kick. American soon answered, tying the game less than five minutes into the second half, when American’s Christian Robbs netted a header of his own to tie the game. However, this didn’t seem to stop Vail, as he capitalized once again on an assist from junior Jamie Luchini in the 88th minute to put the Mountain Hawks ahead for good.

“We did a great job of moving the ball around and creating chances,” Vail said. “We defended really well by getting numbers behind the ball, which led to our success.”

Despite Vail’s performance, he said that he still thinks that there is room for improvement.

“We didn’t do a great job on defending restarts, which will be vital to improve going into our upcoming Patriot League games,” Vail said.

This was a must-needed win for the now 5-3 Mountain Hawks and extremely important for league play. The Hawks recently dropped two of their last three games, each by one goal. The losses were to Brown University and Villanova University.

Senior captain Ali Famili was one the main leaders on the field. Although only making one shot, Famali did well in making small plays in big situations to keep Lehigh’s lead.

Famili was satisfied with the team’s pressure, which disturbed American all game and made it very difficult for the opponent to play.

“We didn’t come out as strong as we wanted to so we will look to improve on that in our next Patriot League game against Bucknell,” Famili said.

The Hawks picked their opportunities carefully as American outshot them throughout the game, making 20 shots on goal against Lehigh’s 17. Lehigh’s goalie Ciaran Nugent was the backbone for the team, coming up big and stopping six solid American attempts. The last one of his saves was in the final minutes of the game and helped to secure a Lehigh victory.

Sophomore captain Danny Gonzalez said that the team had some good energy before the game and was ready to play against the American team. However, he said he knows the team cannot be completely satisfied.

“We could improve upon some small individual battles,” Gonzalez said.

The team has already shown improvements from last season, doubling their overall wins and tying their Patriot League wins. The Hawks are off to a great start, and they have the tools necessary to do some damage in the Patriot League tournament.

After a solid week of practice to critique flaws and discuss strategy, the team will be back on the field again taking on Bucknell University on Saturday, Oct. 4. The Hawks also look forward to battling long-time rival Lafayette College on Oct. 8 at 7 p.m.