Men’s soccer ends with a tie and a win

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Christina Judy, Contributing writer

The men’s soccer team came away with a tie against the Le Moyne Dolphins on Wednesday, Sept. 7. In a grueling battle on the road, the Lakers were tested defensively early on in the match. In the 17th minute, Dolphin midfielder Cameron Stuart fired a shot that met the back of the net and put his team ahead 1-0.

The Lakers answered by putting pressure on Le Moyne’s defense. Through this relentlessness, Laker sophomore midfielder Sean Kerrigan was fouled inside the box, which resulted in a penalty kick. Kerrigan maximized this opportunity and notched a goal for the Lakers in the 33rd minute, tying the game 1-1. The second half presented its own set of challenges as both teams felt the pressure to score.

Midfielder Axel Aronsson had a header off of one of the Lakers six corner kicks that nearly went in during the 70th minute. On the flip side, the Dolphins saw two scoring opportunities off of their corner kicks in the final few minutes of the second half. All credit to the Lakers’ sound defense for keeping the ball out of the net and maintaining the score at 1-1.

With high stakes in mind, this game was physical and aggressive as there were 33 total fouls and seven yellow cards concluding the match. Sophomore goalkeeper Mattias Odelius obtained three saves in only his second recorded full game in the goal this season. The Lakers then dominated on the road as they traveled to Lake Erie College to enhance their record to 5-0-1. In 3-0 feet on Saturday, Sept. 10. The game started off intense, with a lot of back and forth between the Lakers and the Storm.

Mercyhurst kept up a strong defense in the opening minutes of the match. With a sound defense, Laker goalkeeper Jonathan Gomes de-fended the goal with confidence, which shut down a scoring opportunity from Lake Erie. The Lakers pressed on and continued to find scoring opportunities. However, it was not until the 35th minute that Kerrigan connected a pass to Laker senior midfielder Tom Barry who put the ball in the back of the net to give the Lakers a 1-0 lead.

The score remained 1-0 going into half time, although the Lakers gave the Storm a scare within the last seven minutes when sophomore Dylan Sumner headed the ball, only missing by a margin over top of the goal. Carrying that momentum into the second half, Kerrigan locked away a shot into the right side of the net, putting the Lakers ahead by two in the 51st minute.

This was Kerrigan’s seventh goal of the season. Following up on that success, defensive senior, Martin Grzywa, scored his second goal of the season in the 57th minute. Because the Lakers capitalized on their scoring opportunities they were able to pull away with a solid win against the Lake Erie Storm. Cheer on the Lakers in action on Wednesday, Sept. 14, at 7:30 p.m. at home against Daeman University.