Live Stats

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – It has been a long 10 days for the Lycoming College men's soccer team. The Warriors are getting ready for their fifth game in that period when they head to Elizabethtown College for a 7 p.m. game on Saturday, Nov. 9, as the team tries to claim its first conference title in school history.
 
The fourth-seeded Warriors (10-7-3 overall) have taken a long road to the Commonwealth Conference Championship game, beginning with a hotly-contested 2-1 loss on Elizabethtown on Oct. 30. The game featured 11 yellow cards, three penalty kicks, two of which were stopped, and another Elizabethtown goal off a free kick. The loss dropped the Warriors to 3-4-1 in the league and left them needing to beat Hood three days later to have any chance at a spot in the conference tournament.
 
 The Warriors dominated Hood from the first whistle, scoring the golden goal in the 12^th minute and adding another in the 50^th while posting a 15-8 advantage in shots, helping the team clinch the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament, granting them a home game against Lebanon Valley on Monday, Nov. 4.
 
That first round playoff game was an instant classic, too. Neither team scored in the first 100 minutes of the game and then darkness fell over the unlighted Shangraw Athletic Complex. As the coaching staffs huddled with the referees to try and come to a solution, the Williamsport High School boys' soccer coach, Lee Karr, got on the phone to open up the lighted Balls Mills Soccer Complex to finish the game.
 
After an hour delay and a seven-mile drive, the Warriors got a huge break at the start of the second overtime when Connor McDonald's shot inside the box flew high into the Williamsport night. Two minutes later, junior Luke Klingler (Bloomsburg, Pa./Bloomsburg Area) lifted a corner kick to the far post and senior Connor McNiff (Marietta, Pa./Donegal) headed in the game-winner, ending a three-and-a-half hour affair.
 
The reward for the win was a trip to D3soccer.com's top-ranked Messiah for the conference semifinals. The Warriors were the only defense in the conference to hold the Falcons to less than two goals in the regular season. On Wednesday night, Nov. 6, they did better than that, shutting down the Falcons for 110 minutes, the first time Messiah was shutout for 110 minutes since the second game of the 2012 season.
 
The game came down to a penalty kick shootout. It took seven rounds and then finally, senior Justin Walker (Stroudsburg, Pa./Moravian Academy), who walked onto the team in August after not playing competitively for three years, drilled his penalty kick into the left netting and Messiah's two-time all-region counterpart missed wide right.
 
The Warriors are led by the stalwart defensive backline of Walker, McNiff, Commonwealth Conference Rookie of the Year Bill Kerr (Bowie, Md./DeMatha Catholic) and junior Ethan Wilston (Mansfield, Pa./Mansfield Area). The quartet, along with junior goalkeeper Connor Keenan (Exton, Pa./Downingtown East) has not allowed a goal in the last 338 minutes. The defenders also push up when appropriate, accounting for 10 goals, including five game-winners, and seven assists during the season.
 
The team has seen balanced scoring throughout the year, with 13 players posting at least four points, led by freshman Alfonce Mutuku (Beltsville, Md./DeMatha Catholic), who has seven goals to lead the team, and junior Luke Klingler (Bloomsburg, Pa./Bloomsburg Area), who has four goals and five assists.
 
Keenan, who was an honorable mention all-conference selection, has posted a 0.85 goals against average, the third-best in the program's history, while notching a .825 save percentage and six shutouts.
 
Second-seeded Elizabethtown (10-6-3 overall) is also coming off a draining conference semifinal, where it tied Alvernia, 1-1, before winning in the penalty-kick shootout, 3-0. The Blue Jays are led by Andrew Sandbridge, who has seven goals and three assists, and David Boretti, who has four goals and four assists. In net, Rodrigo Barrera has posted a 0.98 goals against average and four of the team's six shutouts.
 
The Blue Jays are the Warriors' greatest postseason nemesis, as they have dropped four Middle Atlantic Conference playoff games to the team, losing in the conference finals in 1994 and 1999. The Warriors have reached a conference final three other times in school history, also losing to Drew in the 2004 Freedom Conference Championship game.