Lehigh men’s soccer faced off for their second to last chance to qualify for the Patriot League Men’s Soccer Championship on Nov. 1.
At the last meeting of these two teams on September 27, 2023, Lehigh emerged victorious against Colgate with a 2-1 win.
This time, Lehigh lost 2-1.
”There’s pressure to get results and with two games left, everybody’s feeling a little bit of extra pressure because of playoffs,” coach Ryan Hess said.
In the first half, both teams had opportunities to score, but Lehigh was putting more shots on target.
The Mountain Hawks goalkeeper Blake Koski, had a great dive to keep a chipped ball out of the net at the start of the first half.
With three minutes left in the first half, Lehigh was fouled in Colgate’s box and a penalty kick was awarded to Senior Perry Kingson.
Colgate’s goal keeper Oliver Townend made a dive save to keep the game scoreless, 0-0 at the end of the first half.
By the end of the first half, Lehigh had four shots on goal and one save. Colgate only had one shot on goal and four saves.
At the start of the second half, Colgate had the ball in Lehigh’s box and a header was hit towards the goal. Koski made the save.
In the 33 minute of the second half Colgate midfielder Jack Beerling struck the ball inside of the box into the left corner of Lehigh’s goal making the score 1-0.
With nineteen minutes left in the second half, a handball was called on Colgate in their box.
Lehigh was awarded their second penalty kick of the night. Kingson was looking for redemption when taking his second penalty kick of the night. At the blow of the whistle, Kingson placed the ball into the left side of the goal to tie the game.
With two minutes left in the game, Colgate defender Connor Cates scored the game winning goal to defeat Lehigh 1-2.
Lehigh was on a five game win streak this season, prior to their matches against Loyola University Maryland and Navy, which dropped their ranking down to 8th in the Patriot League men’s soccer standing. Only the top six teams move on to the tournament.
Against Loyola, Lehigh lost 1-4 and against Navy, they lost 0-1.
Lehigh will be playing Lafayette on November 5th for their last game of the regular season.
After the loss against Colgate, coach Dean Koski said they will continue to practice to get ready for their next match up.
(We’ll) regroup with one practice on Monday in order to get their minds right for the rivalry match against Lafayette,” Koski said.
The outcome of this game and the following game will determine if either team qualifies.
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