PITTSBURGH, Pa. – With two goals over a span of a minute and 13 seconds, the Allegheny College men's soccer team earned its first win of the season this afternoon against La Roche College, 2-1.
All three goals of the match came within three minutes and 46 seconds of each other, but Allegheny (1-3, 0-0 NCAC) tallied the first two to come out on top. The two teams were even in shots (14-14) and saves (7-7), while the Gators held the slightest of edges in shots on goal (9-8).
Allegheny threatened early in the fourth minute with junior midfielder
Scott Powell putting a dangerous header on net, but Redhawk goalkeeper Zack Wainwright was there to make the save. Wainwright was forced to stop another header 13 minutes later when sophomore forward
Izaak Miller broke into the box.
Senior goalkeeper
Jake Pugliese saw his first action in the seventh minute when he stopped a shot from Justin Magnotti. That ended up being one of his two saves from the first half, with the other coming in the 38th minute.
La Roche pressured Allegheny early in the second half with two shots from Aaron Lagnese in a span of two minutes and 28 seconds, but the Gators responded with a prime opportunity off a corner kick in the 61st minute. Four minutes later it was a shot from junior midfielder
Zach Stryker that was turned away, with the Redhawks forcing a save from Pugliese on the counter.
Allegheny broke through in the 76th minute when sophomore forward
Tolossa Hassan shot it to the right of the goalkeeper off a cross from Miller. Immediately after, Miller put together another scoring chance with Powell cashing in on a rebound to make it 2-0.
La Roche answered in the 79th minute with a header from Pedro Ansede off a free kick. However, that was the last shot put on net by the Redhawks as the Gators held strong to earn the victory.
Powell fired a team-high five shots on the day, four of which were on goal.
Allegheny continues a five-match road trip on Tuesday, Sept. 15 when it travels to Baldwin Wallace for a 7:00 p.m. kick-off.
