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LHU men edged 3-2 by West Chester in crucial PSAC match

By BILL ALBRIGHT

LHU Sports Beat Writer

FARRANDSVILLE — When West Chester left the Stern Athletic complex Wednesday afternoon following a PSAC-East men’s soccer match with Lock Haven, consider it one that got away from the Bald Eagles.

Lock Haven staked itself to a 2-0 lead in the first 57 minutes of the contest before the Golden Rams scrapped their way back to tally three unanswered goals in the next eight minutes to walk off with their 3-2 win.

“I just said to the guys that we came out of the first half with a 1-0 lead and then we came out for the second half and got another goal to increase that lead to 2-0,” said LHU head coach Patrick Long. “After that, we just didn’t take care of the little details. That is a good West Chester team that fights and works and they found a way to get back into the game. As for us, we didn’t find a way to close out the game and that is the biggest thing we can take from this. We just didn’t find a way to win a tough conference game. The seniors don’t want to hear it, but I told the underclassmen that is something they want to learn from.”

The Bald Eagles played arguably their best half of soccer to date in the first period.

“The guys knew this was a big game and they came out and executed the game plan we had,” said Long. “We got the goal to take the 1-0 lead at halftime, but in the end, we just couldn’t find a way to close out the game with a win. Winning is habitual and right now we are still trying to figure out how to get on that winning side.”

Troy Amspacher gave the Bald Eagles their 1-0 lead when he took a pass from Brand Brackbill, turned around and beat the WCU goalie at the far post. For Amspacher, it was his 13th goal of the season.

Enjoying the 1-0 lead, the Eagles scored their second goal inside of two minutes of the second half when Tyler Sablyak took a pass from Tyler Weikert and flicked it into the goal.

But then it happened as the Golden Rams picked up the pace of the game to score three unanswered goals for a 3-2 lead that held up for the win.

Their second goal tied the game with eight minutes left before Tim French tallied the game-winner with less than five minutes on the clock.

Although there was some question as to the manner in which the third WC goal was scored, some thought it was an own goal before it came down to the final decision as a Tim French shot on a pass from Colin Hester.

“We knew from the start that West Chester is a team that competes and they get to a lot of second balls,” said Long. “They really take advantage of restarts and that was a restart. It doesn’t matter who it goes in off of because they find a way to be dangerous in the opponents box. Goals like that are going to score, especially for a team that works as hard as they do. Credit their coach because he puts them in a position to be competitive and win games.”

Now 5-9-1 and 3-6 in the PSAC, the Bald Eagles hit the highways for their next action when they travel to Slippery Rock Saturday for another PSAC match-up with The Rock. First touch for that game is set for 2:30.

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