Maliyah Jones
Contributing Writer
The Warriors struck early on, but were not able to hold off the Mercyhurst Lakers as they stormed back from a two-goal deficit to swiftly win the match in overtime in the regular season finale on Saturday, Oct. 27.
ESU came out strong, hitting their stride within the first 10 minutes of the first half as senior Brandon Levano scored his second goal of the season in the sixth minute.
Graduate student Jordon Ellison had the assist.
Junior Marcus Torgersson’s goal followed quickly after, carefully placing a header in the goal in the seventh minute off of a corner kick from Ellison, also assisted by junior Irvin Zuzic.
This was Torgersson’s fourth goal of the season. Both Ellison and Zuzic each have eight assists on the year and are tied for most assists by a Warrior.
The Warriors held onto their 2 – 0 lead through the duration of the first half and into the second, until Mercyhurst͚’s Chris Lund found the back of the net in the 54th minute.
The Lakers rallied once more in regulation as Herni Tophoven found the game equalizer with 7:09 left in the match, sending the thriller into overtime.
Tophoven also netted the sole overtime goal and game-winner in 57 seconds on Mercyhurst’s first shot attempt of the period, to end the match and the Warrior͛s regular season with a final score of 3-2.
The Lakers applied pressure to ESU’s defense throughout the contest.
Most of Mercyhurst’s pressure came in the second half, where they took 11 shots, placing eight of 15 shots on goal overall, compared to the Warriors’ four of 12 shots on goal.
Senior goalkeeper Will Boerema also had five saves for the Warriors.
The Warriors (9-7, 6-5 PSAC) will look to snap their three-game losing streak as they travel to Shippensburg Unversity on Tuesday, Oct. 30th to take on the fourth seed Raiders in the opening round of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tournament.
The game is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. No. 5 ESU enter the postseason as the tournament as the defending PSAC men’s soccer champions. The winner of Tuesday’s contest will go on to play the top-seeded Golden Rams on Friday, Nov. 2 at West Cheater University for the semi-final game.
Email Maliyah at:
mjones58@live.esu.edu
