The men’s soccer team dominated this season and recently secured the PSAC championship.

On Sunday, Nov. 6, the Lakers defeated Bloomsburg in the PSAC finals and secured their first championship since 2016. Sophomore Dylan Sumner described the team’s anticipation of winning the PSAC Champion-ship.

“We were all buzzing to win the PSAC title. Last year we were disappointed to lose in the semi’s after having a good team, so this year we wanted to make sure we don’t slip up and stay focused to win the title,” Sumner said.

The match was full of action until the final minutes where the Lakers grabbed the automatic ticket to the NCAA tournament. Sophomore Jorge Tallada Torres found the back of the net in the only goal of the match by a pass from Sumner to win. The Lakers entered the tournament with a record of 19-0-1 and a perfect 10-0 conference record.

Head Coach Ryan Osborne gave his thoughts on the team’s championship win.

“It felt great. It was a relief, finals are never easy to win. However, it was also something that we’d planned for, worked hard for and a goal that we set ourselves prior to the season,” Osborne said.

“At the final whistle the overwhelming emotion for myself was that I was proud of the team and the staff as a lot of dedication, hours and hard work go into this behind the scenes.”

Going into the National Tournament, the Lakers were ranked third in the region and received a first round bye, starting the second round on home field vs the Post University Eagles. Osborne described the team’s preparations going into game one.

“Our main focus is to execute and to be who we are. We need to play the game and not the occasion, we have prepared well and are ready. Post is a very good team and we know we’ll have to be at our best to win and advance,”

Osborne said.The Eagles were ranked number six in the nation posting a 15-3-2 record on their season.

The two teams faced off Saturday, Nov. 12, at 6.p.m. in the most challenging game of the season for the Lakers. Saturday night the beginning of the match saw a lot of action in very harsh rainy conditions. The game was tied 0-0 after half. The second half continued a series of very physical play with various tackles and stoppages.

In the 77th minute, the Eagles capitalized off a corner kick and put the Lakers down 1-0. The Lakers went all out for the final minutes trying to return but were caught pressuring resulting in another goal off a rush from the Eagles. Post held off the Lakers attack and ended in a final score of 2-0. Despite the Lakers falling to Post in the second round of the NCAA tournament, Osborne attributes the team’s success through the regular season to their willingness to do the tough parts and a full commitment from the whole team.

The Lakers set out to achieve a goal of playing in the National Tournament and regardless of the result the team did just that. It was not the end score the players obviously hoped for when searching to go deep in the tournament. The Lakers however have had a historic run this season both in-dividually and collectively. The team has made the com-munity proud and should be proud of themselves.