Bethlehem, PA – Lehigh (1-3) won its first game of the season on Wednesday evening by defeating West Chester 3-2 at the Ulrich Sports Complex.
The Mountain Hawks came out firing early and built a big lead that they had to hold onto as the game progressed.
Head coach
Julie Mazer goes to 2-0 in her young career against her alma mater.
Lehigh jumped on the board early when junior Maureen Harrington scored her first goal of the season off of a feed from fellow classmate Marissa Iannarone and the Brown and White was in front 1-0 at the 6:08 mark. The game then went scoreless for nearly 20 minutes but that did not stop the Mountain Hawks from attacking on the offensive end.
Lehigh capitalized on its many opportunities at the 23:35 mark of the opening stanza when Kristi Miller took a feed from Moira Garrity and the Mountain Hawks were in front 2-0. Freshman Katie Noon scored her second goal in as many games just over one minute later and the home team was in front by three scores, which is how the game remained heading into halftime.
West Chester finally got on the board at the 44:34 mark of the second half when Mary Ellen White knocked in a goal off a feed from Shelly Brooks. The Golden Rams (1-4) then made things interesting as they received another goal, this time from Lauren Enck at the 69:53 mark to pull within one. Lehigh ran out the clock however, and the game was over.
The Mountain Hawks unleashed a staggering 21 shots on the evening to the Golden Rams nine, while Lehigh had six penalty corners to West Chester’s four. In goal for the Mountain Hawks, senior Jeanine Hoff stopped two shots in her 30 minutes of action and junior Meghan Gove sent back a pair of shots as well. Harrington led Lehigh with four shots on the evening.
Mazer was pleased with the effort and was happy to get the team’s first win. “I think we took advantage of early opportunities. We got into a nice rhythm and played much more organized on the defensive end. This was a nice game for us, and we came through with the victory.”
Lehigh returns to action on Saturday when the Mountain Hawks play host to Robert Morris at the Ulrich Sports Complex. That game is scheduled to begin at 11:00 am.
