Bethlehem, PA – Senior
Jocelyn Helwig scored a breakaway goal in the 103rd minute to give Lehigh a dramatic 3-2 overtime victory against Towson on Monday evening at the Ulrich Sports Complex.
The victory seemed far off in the beginning of the contest, when the visiting Tigers jumped out to a quick lead in the early minutes, but the Mountain hawks fought back and eventually came out on top.
With the win, Lehigh improves to 8-5 on the season, while the Tigers drop to
6-6-1.
Towson got on the board first when Jen Van Horn took a beautiful cross pass from Shannon Jackson and found the back of the net at the 3:24 mark. Annie Hay also assisted on the Tiger’s first score. Towson struck again quickly when at the 6:04 mark, Jamie Swears scored off of a pass from Van Horn and Jackson to put the visitors in front 2-0 right from the start.
Lehigh cut the Tigers lead in half at the 40:42 mark when sophomore Daniela Molina scored her second goal of the season off of a nice lead pass from fellow classmate Lauren Calabrese and the Mountain Hawks had trimmed Towson’s lead to one at 2-1. The two teams would retire for halftime with the score the same.
Lehigh was able to tie the game when freshman Melissa Montalvo scored with just under 15 minutes remaining in the contest, scorching a shot past the Towson keeper. Despite numerous scoring chances by the Mountain Hawks, including several from point blank range, the ball could not find its way into the back of the net for the rest of regulation and so the two teams headed for overtime.
In overtime, Lehigh was able to maintain the momentum it got going in regulation and capped it off with Helwig’s nifty game-winner that send the chilled crowd home happy. For the game, Lehigh unleashed an onslaught of 29 shots to the Tigers five, while the Mountain Hawks had three corners to Towson’s two. In goal for the winners, senior Erin Iwaskiewicz stopped three Towson shots and Tiger’s goalie Brandi Daniels sent back 13 Mountain Hawk shots.
Head Coach Manny Oudin was happy to win the game after starting so slow. “Once we started to play, we battled back and played our game. In the end, we deserved to win this game.” Oudin concludes, “It was a hard fought win.”
Lehigh returns to action on Saturday afternoon when the Mountain Hawks travel to Washington, D.C. to take on Patriot League foe American in a key conference clash. Game time is scheduled for 2:00.
