Lehigh secures first round bye on Luchini's golden goal vs. Holy Cross

Saturday, November 2

Worcester, Mass.

1 p.m.

Lehigh University

11-4-2, 6-0-2

Holy Cross

3-14-0, 1-7-0

Lehigh

Holy Cross

Photo by: Justin Lafleur

Lehigh secures first round bye on Luchini's golden goal vs. Holy Cross

11/2/2019 7:15:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

WORCESTER, Mass. — It was an afternoon to remember for the Lehigh men's soccer team, as the Mountain Hawks came from behind and used two late goals in the form of a Trevor Koski goal in the 82nd minute and a golden goal off the head of Josh Luchini for the golden goal, lifting Lehigh over Holy Cross, 2-1 and sending the Mountain Hawks into the Patriot League Semifinals with a first round bye for the second consecutive season. Lehigh also stays undefeated in league play with the victory at 6-0-2 with just one regular season game remaining.

Lehigh struggled to get much of anything going offensively in the first half, despite firing off the first three shots of the contest in the first seven minutes. Senior goalkeeper Will Smith made his first save in the ninth minute, which proved to be the first of six saves in the first half for Smith.

The Crusaders' defense stifled the Mountain Hawks' attack in the first half with Natan Rosen tallying Lehigh's only shot on goal of the first stanza in the 12th minute as the team didn't manage to get another shot off for the remainder of the period. Lehigh and Holy Cross entered its respective locker rooms at the conclusion of the half in a scoreless tie.

"We definitely got off to a slow start," said head coach Dean Koski. "I think it's a good lesson for us that it's hard to play on the road. But there's a lot of parity in the Patriot League, even though Holy Cross has struggled to get results, they certainly had enough games where they can hang around and they actually put a lot of pressure on us in the first half.

"I thought Will (Smith) made some key saves for us, but we just couldn't get our right foot forward on a lot of balls and I don't think we executed our game plan as we had hoped, so we knew we had to re-group at halftime and remind them what our focus was and not to deviate from it."

Sophomore forward Josh Luchini registered Lehigh's first shot of the second half in the 58th minute, which was saved by the Holy Cross keeper.

In the 68th minute, it was Emmanuel Petrov who delivered the go-ahead score for the Crusaders off the assist from Matt McGonigle to hand Holy Cross a 1-0 lead. The goal snapped Smith's shutout streak of 448 minutes and snapped the Mountain Hawks' four-game shutout streak dating back to Oct. 5 vs. Army West Point.

Playing with their backs against the wall, the Mountain Hawks got two chances to score in the 70th minute from Zarin Tuten, which was saved and then in the 75th minute when Rosen's shot went wide of the net.

With just eight minutes to play in the contest in the 82nd minute, Trevor Koski delivered the equalizer after Dawson Berger's ball found Ikem Mbalewe, who attempted a bicycle kick and landed in the right spot for Koski to come through for the finish, knotting the game at 1 in the final minutes of the second half. Koski's goal is his fourth of the season and the assists for Berger and Mbalewe are both their firsts of the campaign. Dylan Scanley had a shot that went wide for the Crusaders in the closing seconds, but the clock expired forcing an overtime period at 1-1.

82' | LEHIGH GOAL!!!! What a fantastic feed from Dawson Berger off the head of Ikem Mbalewe which gets re-directed to Trevor Koski for the score. Lehigh ties it up at 1 late in second half. Watch on https://t.co/7jRjNNurJY. #GoLehigh #PLTop3 pic.twitter.com/DonmfeqpiL
— y-Lehigh Men's Soccer (@LehighMSoccer) November 2, 2019

"For Ikem to put the ball where he needed to put it on the cross from Dawson in the air, he did that really well and put it on the frame," said Koski. "Trevor was just in the right place at the right time and did what anybody would do and put the ball in the net, but I think that was created by Ikem's athletic shot and we needed that just to breathe some life into us and get level.
"I think that energized us and we carried that energy into overtime."

Playing in its second overtime period of its last three games, Lehigh had two chances early on in the period, both from Rosen in the 95th and 97th minutes, but the Mountain Hawks were still looking for that answer after scoring late in the second half to get to this point.

After Luchini was fouled near the top right corner of the box, sophomore defender Nick Jennings was called upon to take the free kick, and like always, did not disappoint.

Jennings' free kick was placed perfectly and was deflected off the head of Luchini in for the golden goal, giving Lehigh a 2-1 overtime victory over the Crusaders and a first round bye into the Patriot League Semifinals on Tuesday, Nov. 12 where the Mountain Hawks will host at the Ulrich Sports Complex. The goal was Luchini's 11th of the season, which leads the Patriot League. It's also the 17th of his career, while Jennings tallied his third assist of the year.

99' | GOLDEN GOAL!!! LEHIGH WINS!!! Nick Jennings tallies the game-winner on the free kick with just over a minute left in OT and the Mountain Hawks pick up a 2-1 victory over Holy Cross and stay undefeated at 6-0-2. #GoLehigh #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/ZWwUkAvRL9
— y-Lehigh Men's Soccer (@LehighMSoccer) November 2, 2019

"It was really what we emphasized in our game plan, to get service into the box," Koski said. "Whether it was sharp restarts in the flow of play, I don't think we did a great job, but even if we had enough chances there, we felt it was a strength of ours and a little bit of an Achilles heel for them.

"Nick played the ball well and Josh did what he needed to do and do whatever he could to get a piece of that. That's what good forwards do."

Rosen led the way with six shots, two on goal, while Luchini had three shots and two on goal as well. Koski added a couple, while Tuten, Stevo Bednarsky and Euan Forrest each managed one shot each for the afternoon.

After trailing 7-4 at the end of the first half, the Mountain Hawks ended up out-shooting the Crusaders, 14-12. Fouls were nearly even at 16-15 in favor of Holy Cross, while goalkeeper Will Smith made a game-high six saves in 98:54, allowing just the first goal in the 68th minute. His GAA is currently at 0.73 with a save percentage of .842 in 16 starts.

The win is Lehigh's 11th of the year and its sixth Patriot League victory of the season, staying undefeated at 6-0-2, trending towards the program's first unbeaten regular season in league play since 2006 and for just the second time in program history.

Lehigh will now set its sights on Bucknell Wednesday night at 6 p.m. at the Ulrich Sports Complex for Senior Night. A Lehigh win, tie or Loyola loss will clinch the Mountain Hawks' first Patriot League Regular Season Championship since 2006 and the No. 1 overall seed in the Patriot League Tournament with home field advantage throughout. Wednesday's game will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network.

"That was important for us to get one of the top two seeds, because it is important to get that bye and not have to play potentially three games in seven days," said Koski. "It makes a big difference when you're looking at hopefully two games in the course of a week, so we knew the importance of getting that bye, certainly we would like to get that top seed as well.

"But we also want to make sure we do what we need to do in order to beat Bucknell. They're a good team and we'll get our guys ready for our final home game, our final regular season game and Senior Night."

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