Erie, PA—The Mercyhurst Men's Soccer team earned its first win of the season against the University of the District of Columbia on Friday by a score of 4-2.
How it Happened
In just the seventh minute, the UDC keeper came off his line to play a long lob pass for the Lakers. Erik Cederberg also went up for the ball, the two collided and the UND keeper earned an early red card to put the Firebirds down a man for the rest of the game.
The Lakers took advantage of the man-up situation in the 17th minute as Dylan Sumner netted his first career goal as a Laker. Nic Münch earned the assist as he beat two defenders before feeding it to Sumner.
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In the 25th minute the Firebirds tied the game at one. The score held and the two teams went to the half tied at one.
In the 60th minute the Firebirds took a shot from the midfield circle and managed to lift it over the head of goalkeeper Jonathan Gomes to take the 2-1 lead. The Lakers extinguished the Firebirds the rest of the game.
Mercyhurst then caught fire as they scored in the 64th minute to tie the game at two. Sumner scored his second of the game after a beautiful pass from Salvador Rang on a free kick.
Under two minutes later the Lakers took the lead as Nevado Elliott scored his first goal as a Laker. He took the lob pass from Sumner and beat the keeper to the ball at the edge of the box to give the Lakers the lead.
The graduate transfer wasn't done. Elliott netted his second goal on a pass from Münch. Elliott made no mistake after taking pass in the box, he put it passed keeper and extended the Laker lead to two.
By the Numbers
Mercyhurst kept up its trend of generating a lot of shots as they generated 14 shots with eight finding the goal. The Lakers allowed just nine total shots while four found the goal.
Day of Firsts
Head Coach Ryan Osborne picked up his first win as the head coach of the Mercyhurst squad. Both Sumner and Elliott picked up their first goals as Lakers. Münch and Rang tallied their first points of the season with their assists.
Coach's Corner
"I am happy to get win number one for the season," Osborne said. He was proud of his young team, "I was proud of our character and drive to comeback after adversity today. We found a way when it counted," Osborne explained. The young team is still learning and growing and the manager understands that "we have some things to learn and grown from, but we are all committed to being better day by day." Osborne also gave credit to his opponents who played a man down most of the day. "Credit to UDC, they made today, very difficult for us."
Up Next
The Lakers will play two non-conference games against Shepherd and Salem next week.
