Last second push falls through as Lehigh falls to Navy in PLT

Saturday, November 6

Bethlehem, Pa.

6 p.m.

Lehigh University

5-11-2

Navy (Quarterfinals)

12-5-1

Navy

Lehigh

Photo by: Hannahally Photography

Last second push falls through as Lehigh falls to Navy in PLT

11/6/2021 11:09:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – It was a tough way to end an exciting regular season for the Lehigh men's soccer team, as a late push was not enough in Navy's 1-0 quarterfinal round victory Saturday evening at the Ulrich Sports Complex. The Mountain Hawks' season comes to an end at 5-11-2 overall following the team's sixth berth into a Patriot League Tournament in the last eight years. Lehigh started the year winless through its first nine games and 0-3 in the Patriot League before winning four of its final five games to earn the No. 4 seed in the tournament field.

The Mountain Hawks played a gritty match with the Midshipmen, tightly contested through the full 90 minutes of play as Lehigh truly left it all out on the field by the end of the contest. Shots were nearly even throughout as Navy had the edge 17-15 and 8-6 in shots on goal. Shots were even in the second half at nine each.

"Our guys played with the kind of grit, toughness and perseverance that we wanted them to," said The Ingrassia Family Men's Head Soccer Coach Dean Koski. "They played like a tournament team tonight. We lost out way a little bit in the second half. When you chase the game, it elevates their anxiety. But I couldn't be disappointed in this group because we got to a place we never thought we'd get to.

"They had an incredible month of October in terms of our results and kept competing until the last seconds. They wanted that goal, so I'm incredibly proud of these guys and certainly the seniors have been an important part of that. To turn the season around like we did is pretty special."

Lehigh tallied each of the first four shots of the contest including two shots on goal from Trevor Koski that were saved by Tyler Fahning. Momentum shifted over to the Mids with four of the next five shots including two saves for Blake Koski.

Stevo Bednarsky had an opportunity to take a shot for Lehigh in the 37th minute of action, but sent it wide to keep it scoreless. The Mids tallied three shots to conclude the half including a shot for Sidney Paris in the 44th that was saved by Koski, leaving it 0-0 heading into the locker room.

Despite the result, that was one heck of a game.

Check out the highlights 👇🎥 pic.twitter.com/qejYhkJUZg
— Lehigh Men's Soccer (@LehighMSoccer) November 7, 2021

In the 47th minute of the second half, Dawson Berger had a shot saved by Fahning to kick things off.

Navy took the lead in the 50th minute on the goal for Charlie Kriel, who headed in the score from David Jackson's corner kick to put the Mids on top, 1-0.

The rest of the second was back and forth as Euan Forrest sent a shot into the arms of Fahning in the 52nd minute to keep it 1-0.

Jack Sarkos nearly equalized in the 78th minute when Fahning made a one-of-a-kind save to keep the Mountain Hawks off the scoreboard. Blake Koski answered back with an impressive save of his own in the 80th from Baba Kallie.

As Lehigh frantically tried to put together scoring opportunities in the closing minutes, Austen Carranza had a shot that was just blocked in the 88th minute and with three seconds on the clock, a scramble in the box found the back of Euan Forrest's foot over to Sarkos, who just missed wide as time expired, sealing the victory for Navy and ending Lehigh's season prematurely.

Dawson Berger, Stevo Bednarsky and Jack Sarkos led the way with three shots each, while both Euan Forrest and Trevor Koski contributed a pair of opportunities. Blake Koski made seven saves for the Mountain Hawks.

The Mountain Hawks celebrated their senior class earlier this season against Boston University, but would've liked to send them out with a Patriot League title. All-in-all, it was a fabulous Lehigh career for all seven players (Noah Sutherland, Dawson Berger, Michael Tahiru, Nick Jennings, Josh Luchini, Trevor Koski and Stevo Bednarsky), who all made their mark on a program in many different ways.

"They leave here with a championship in 2019 and leave here with the knowledge that they didn't pack it in when we were really struggling in September and they kept training and working hard and leading the younger guys," said Koski. "You can't ask for anything more. They left it all out on the field tonight and that's what you want for every one of your seniors. They certainly did that for us tonight."

Navy will now head to Washington, D.C. to play No. 2 American on Tuesday in the Patriot League semifinals. Sixth-seeded Army West Point upset third-seeded Holy Cross to advance to the semifinal round against top-seed Loyola Maryland.

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