Erie, PA--The Lakers Men's Soccer Team defeated Penn State Behrend in convincing fashion on Tuesday evening by a score of 4-0. Played on the Mercyhurst University Soccer Field, Mercyhurst was led in the first half from a pair of goals by forward Tom Barry.
The first real scoring chance of the match came 11 minutes in when the Laker attack drew a penalty inside the 18-yard box after good positive play from freshman Thomas Binkowski. Tom Barry would attempt the ensuing penalty kick however he was stopped by the Lions goalkeeper.
Ten minutes later Mercyhurst came up just short as a well-placed corner kick was unable to find the target, just narrowly missing.
After a Penn State Behrend shot attempt that hit the side post, Barry captured the 1-0 lead for Mercyhurst when he found the back of the net in the 29th minute after good work from Julio Betar.
Shortly after Barry's goal, Mercyhurst added their second goal of the evening when freshman Thomas Binkowski ripped in his second goal as a Laker after a fantastic defense splitting pass from Fabio Schortmann.
Barry would tack on his second of the contest and team leading fifth goal of the season with two minutes left in the first half when he was able to redirect a shot from Erik Cederberg, who reacted quickly to a loose ball following a Mercyhurst corner.
Behrend would come out of the halftime break aggressive as they had two legitimate chances early on in the second. The first came in the 50th minute when Penn State Behrend had a free kick bounce off a wall of Mercyhurst defenders.
The Lions had their best chance at scoring all night two minutes later when a shot fired from deep hit the bottom of the crossbar and deflected out of harm's way.
In the 58th minute, Thomas Binkowski stole a pass and fired a shot from 40 yards out. Behrend's keeper was caught out of position, unfortunately for Mercyhurst the shot narrowly missed.
The Lakers capped off the scoring in the 62nd minute courtesy of Salvador Rang whose 25 yard free kick froze the goalie in place as he watched the ball curl into the top left corner of the net.
Laker goalkeeper Mattias Odelius had a relatively quiet evening in net not seeing much action however he was able to come out of his box in the 74th minute to secure a breakaway off a Lion through ball.
Mercyhurst will next take the pitch for the final time of the spring season at on Sunday, April 18th against fellow PSAC member Seton Hill with the match set to begin at 2:00 PM.
