Lehigh University Athletics
Lehigh and Lafayette close out regular season in Easton
11/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Koski continues, “This is a great game to have at the end of the season. We need to enjoy the end of season rivalry because we may wind up seeing
Lehigh is coming off of a hard fought 2-1 victory over Colgate on October 29 at the Ulrich Sports Complex, which helped the Mountain Hawks finish the regular season unbeaten and untied at home, the first time in school history that has happened. Junior John O’Reilly scored both goals, including his team-leading fourth game-winner. For his efforts, O’Reilly was named to the College Soccer News Team of the Week, and he was honored as the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week and the ECAC Division I Player of the Week. O’Reilly is currently tied for second on Lehigh with six goals, and sits in third with 12 points.
A pair of seniors, in Jim Stevens and Adam Williamson has led the Mountain Hawks on offense all season long. Stevens leads the Patriot League with nine goals and is ranked second in points with 19, while Williamson has scored six goals and handed out a team-high five assists for 17 points. Senior Peter Classi, sophomore Joe Clemente, and freshmen Adam Gazda and Patrick Cucci have also contributed to the Lehigh offense.
On defense, the Mountain Hawks are once again one of the toughest teams in
In front of Sales, a plethora of Mountain Hawk defenders have contributed to one of the stingiest defenses in the nation. Despite winning accolades for his offense, O’Reilly’s primary responsibility is defense, and he is joined by juniors Tom Zubulake, who handles the majority of the Lehigh throw-ins, Joe Verdi and Matt Franz. Senior captain Kevin Deger and sophomore Michael Hessemer come off of the bench to add depth to the Mountain Hawk defense.
Senior Jose Larin, who has been a mainstay in the Lehigh starting lineup throughout his career lines up in the midfield, contributing mightily to the defense and offense. He talks about the rivalry with
every year. They had our mark for a number of years and we finally broke it with a win against them last season. The game was also very physical throughout, and tempers ran high.”
Larin continues, “When we play
Lehigh will head into Saturday’s match with the same mindset it has for every game. “We need an effective game plan, as we do for all of our matches, and then we have to go out and execute it” explains Koksi. “We’ll need to stay focused and disciplined, and not let the environment affect us. We need to come out and play with emotion and really appreciate what this game means.”
Larin echoes those thoughts. “In order to be successful we can’t have any defensive mental mistakes throughout the 90 minutes and our offense will need to get the job done, which I’m confident they can.”
In goal for the Leopards, Mike Tortora has seen 1303 minutes of action, posting a 0.90 goals against average and a .812 save percentage. The senior is the reigning Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week and has recorded five shut outs thus far this season.
Saturday’s game gets underway at 7:00 from Easton. The game will be shown on tape delay on Monday, November 7 at 8:00 on College Sports Television (CSTV), with Gary Laubach, Dan Mowdy and John Leone.
