Box Score YORK, Pa. – The York College Spartan men's soccer team suffered a heartbreaking loss on Sunday afternoon, losing to the Lycoming College Warriors 3-2 on a penalty kick goal midway through the second overtime.
The Spartan fall to 1-2 overall while the Warriors improve to 2-1.
The Warriors came out firing on all cylinders offensively as they applied heavy pressure on the York defense as soon as the game started. Their passing was crisp and they seemed to have a good flow early on. The Spartan defense, led by the physical play of seniors Chris Saberton (Wilmington, Del./ Salesianum) and Ryan Donahue (York, Pa./York Suburban), was able to clear the ball whenever the Warriors threatened.
In the 13th minute, sophomore Joel Teston (Manassas, Va./Forest Park) made a crossing pass into the box and found senior Greg Bechard (Newark, Del./St. Mark's) who headed in the feed for his second goal of the year. Just four minutes later, Saberton was able to find some room and launched a shot from about 20 yards out, but hit off the right post to keep the game at 1-0.
York came out in the second half applying most of the pressure when finally, in the 67th minute, junior Nigel Robinson (Woodbridge, Va./Forest Park) took a loose ball from the Spartan's side of the field, dribbled up until he was just inside the 18-yard box, and curved a shot around the Lycoming goalkeeper to give York a 2-0 lead.
Lycoming's offensive intensity grew as the game went on but they couldn't seem to find a way to finish. After a York foul close to the box, Lycoming's Jason Coles received a great crossing pass from Jordan Logan off a free kick and headed it in for his first goal of the season to cut the Warrior's deficit to 2-1 in the 82nd minute. Five minutes later, Abdullahi Abdi took a corner kick and was able to find Jose Cooper who headed in the equalizer as momentum clearly had swung to the guests from Williamsport.
Deadlocked in a 2-2 draw, the game moved into overtime. Although both teams provided strong offensive efforts, the score remained tied at two heading into the second overtime period. In the second overtime, both the Spartan defense and the Warrior offense went up for a 50/50 ball inside the 18 when a foul was called, awarding Lycoming a penalty kick with 5:21 remaining. Abdi, who had been playing very hard for Lycoming all day, took the kick and scored to end the game.
The Warriors finished the game holding a 19-13 margin in total shots while York had a 7-6 edge in shots on goal. Lycoming had a 4-3 advantage in corner kicks. The teams combined for a whooping 49 total fouls and six yellow cards in the highly physical contest.
Josh Gildea earned the win as he made five saves and allowed two goals in his 104:41 of work. Charlie Johnson (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) made three saves and allowed three goals as he suffered the loss.
The Spartans will be back in action on Wednesday when they travel to Alvernia to clash with the Crusaders at 7:00 pm.
Story written by Will Wallace, Athletic Communications Student Assistant
Nigel Robinson photo courtesy of Joe Rodgers
