Wilkes Men's Soccer Wins High Scoring Affair 4-3
MADISON, N.J. – The Wilkes University men's soccer team held off a late FDU-Florham attack to escape with a road victory on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, the Colonels finish the regular season at 8-8-1 and 3-4 in Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom play. The loss drops the Devils to 5-12 overall and 2-5 in the MAC Freedom.
The score remained tied at zero for most of the first half until FDU-Florham broke the stalemate with a penalty kick goal in the 38th minute.
Wilkes would waste little time knotting the game up as a 42nd minute corner kick from Ed Lukowski (Nanticoke, PA/Nanticoke) was headed in by Shane Henehan (Bensalem, PA/Mast Community Charter School) to send the teams to halftime with the score 1-1.
The Colonels would kick off the second half scoring when Gabriel Nieves (Yorktown Heights, NY/Lakeland Senior) blasted one into the back of the net from 20 yards out to give Wilkes their first lead of the game in the 56th minute.
This time FDU-Florham would answer quickly when a long ball played into the box was flicked in past the Wilkes goalkeeper to tie the game back up at 2-2.
The Colonels would put a stop to the trading of goals by recording the next two scores of the match. First, Jeffrey Eager-Heffner (Blandon, PA/Fleetwood Area) would put Wilkes back in front with a 75th minute marker off of a free kick before Camry Huff's (Waynesboro, PA/Waynesboro) 80th minute tally gave the Colonels a 4-2 lead.
FDU-Florham would make this one interesting until the end as a ball lofted in from 40 yards out found the back of the goal to pull them within one in the 87th minute.
The Devils would make the Colonels defend to the end as less than one minute later an FDU-Florham shot was blocked before another one hit the crossbar to keep Wilkes in the lead.
Goalkeeper Tim Gallagher (Easton, PA/Notre Dame Green Pond) would make one more save in the 89th minute to allow Wilkes to head home with a hard fought victory.
The Colonels were the more aggressive team in this match as they held substantial advantages in shots (28-9), shots on goal (10-5) and corner kicks (8-3).
Wilkes now waits to hear if they will be continuing their season with postseason play in the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament.
