“It was a great win on the road against a good Patriot League team,” said Ingrassia Family men’s head soccer coach Dean Koski. “It’s all about picking up points, and I thought that we played the way that we wanted to play and got the result that we needed to get.”
Lehigh (8-5-3, 5-1-1 PL) and Boston U. (8-6-0, 4-3-0 PL) played to a 0-0 draw in the first half. The Mountain Hawks found a narrow 6-5 advantage in shots in the frame despite the Terriers sending two shots on goal to Lehigh’s one.
It didn’t take long for the Mountain Hawks to break the tie in the second half, as junior Trey Sheeler scored his second goal of the season in the 55th minute on assists from junior Thomas Robertson and sophomore Aiden Gonzalez. Less than a minute later, Robertson doubled Lehigh’s lead with his team-leading sixth goal of the season on assists from sophomore Giacomo Zizza and senior Noah Levy. A strong defensive effort and solid play in goal helped the Mountain Hawks secure three points and punch their ticket to the postseason.
“The first goal was huge from Trey, I thought we did a nice job of keeping it alive in the final third and giving him a good look at goal,” said Koski. “Our response was terrific to find another goal so quickly. You need your upperclassmen to step up in games like this, and they certainly did.”
BU had an 11-9 advantage in shots and generated five corners to Lehigh’s two. Despite this, the Mountain Hawks’ excellent defense helped secure the shutout.
“We have spent a lot of time working on our defense, and we made some adjustments in terms of our lineup,” said Koski. “I thought that Jax Adkins had a great game for us stepping in for Landon Bealer. Matthew Aitchison was great as a center back, we moved Sam Davis out to right back, and Paul Smajlaj did a great job of anchoring us back there. For all four backs, it was arguably their best game this season.”
Davis, Robertson, Sheeler, Zizza, and senior Yusef Gueye provided Lehigh’s shot attempts. Sophomore goalkeeper Anton Kinnunen was fantastic, securing his second clean sheet of the season on the back of five saves.
“[Anton’s] backs did a really good job of protecting him and blocking shots,” said Koski. “I thought that Anton had a really good mentality and made saves that he needed to make to keep us in the game. It was certainly one of his best games and one of our back four’s best games.”
The Mountain Hawks continue their Patriot League schedule on Friday, October 31 on the road against Colgate at 7 p.m.
“Once we finish a game, we’ll learn as a coaching staff what we need to learn from the previous game, but our focus is going to be on Colgate,” said Koski. “It’d be nice for us to try to finish first or second to secure a first-round bye, but we’re not looking beyond Colgate at this stage.”
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