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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh men’s soccer team suffered a heartbreaking loss at the Ulrich Sports Complex Tuesday night in its last non-league game of the regular season when the Drexel Dragons notched a goal with 38 seconds left in the game.
The Mountain Hawks dropped to 3-8-3. This was the first time Lehigh hath lost on his own home field this season. Coming into Tuesday’s game, the Mountain Hawks were 2-0-3 at home. Drexel is now 6-3-6.
Despite giving up a late-minute goal, sophomore goalkeeper Ryan Gross, who played in his first game since Oct. 1, had an incredible performance, saving nine shots.
Wanting to rest guys before a tough final two matchups in the Patriot League regular season, the Mountain Hawks went with a different starting lineup then they usually do.
“It’s really important for them developmentally,” said head coach Dean Koski. “I think it’s important for them emotionally and mentally. I think it lifts the team when they see other guys playing and guys who haven’t played a lot. It’s great that we can have a game like this, this late into the season and play some guys who normally wouldn’t play.”
The Dragons outshot Lehigh 17-8. The whole game was a defensive battle between both teams up until the final minute, when Drexel’s Dominick Bachstein scored on a feed from Giancarlo Vaccaro with 38 seconds remaining.
First-year Jarman Reilly had two of Lehigh’s eight shots.
“We have to make sure communications wise we stay locked in for 90 minutes,” Koski said. “We lost our focus a couple of times, and the way to keep your focus is to communicate. Our guys are good at that, but they’re tired… We’ll have enough days to rest and get ready for Boston. It’s a really important game for us.”
The Mountain Hawks will now look to bounce back when they take on Boston University on Saturday at 6 pm Lehigh sits eighth in the Patriot League standings with two league games remaining, but the Mountain Hawks are only one point out of the sixth and final spot in the tournament and only four points out of second place.
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