UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – It took over 102 minutes of play, but the No. 13 Mountain Hawks were finally able to come away with their first-ever victory over Penn State in a series that consists of 17 meetings and dates back to 1915. Sophomore Adam Gazda scored the game-winning goal in the second overtime to give the Mountain Hawks a 1-0 victory in breezy, cold conditions at Jeffrey Field. With the win, the Mountain Hawks earned their 14th victory of the season, which broke the previous program record of 13 that was set in 1998, and improved their season record to 14-1-1.
“It was as big of a game that it was expected to be,” said head coach Dean Koski. “I think they were very good and clearly their win over Indiana last week shows that. Obviously for us, it is a major milestone to achieve our 14th win. Adam had to sprint all the way down the field for us to get that goal. It was a great job and effort by all the guys.”
After 90 mintues of scoreless action, the teams headed into overtime, where another ten minutes would pass without any scoring.
Penn State, 6-9-2 overall, had a corner kick in the first 1:01 of the second overtime, but the Mountain Hawk defense stood strong and cleared it out. Senior Clay Talley picked up the ball and sent it to freshman Kyle Evans. Gazda, who was standing deep in the Lehigh defensive end during the corner kick, sprinted the length of the field to receive a pass from Evans and went on to deposit the ball in the back of the net.
Senior Jim Morahan came up with six saves in the match, including several key stops, as he recorded his 12th shutout of the season. With the shutout, Lehigh has held opponents scoreless for 667:38. The last opponent to score on the Mountain Hawks was Holy Cross’ Josh Trott on September 23.
The Nittany Lions outshot the Mountain Hawks 14-9 as the teams both took six corner kicks.
“We still recognize that we have an important game against Lafayette on Saturday,” said Koski. “That is the game that we are going to focus on now.”
Lehigh will close out the regular season on Saturday night when archrival Lafayette visits the Ulrich Sports Complex. Game time is set for 7:00 pm. Live audio and video will be broadcast online at lehighsports.com with streaming provided by Yahoo! Sports.
