WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — After two high-scoring wins to close the regular season, the sixth-seeded Lycoming College men's soccer team will open the 2026 Landmark Conference Championship on Saturday, Oct. 31 at 2 p.m. with a road match at third-seeded Catholic University of America, who is receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches Poll.
Tickets for the game cost $11 for adults (18+) and $6 for both minors (ages 10-17) and seniors. Landmark Conference students, faculty and staff can enter free with their campus ID. Tickets must be purchased online through Hometown Ticketing. Cash will not be accepted at the door.
The winner of the match will move on to face #2 seed Moravian, who earned a first round bye, in the semifinal on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. at Moravian's John Makuvek Field.
Lycoming (8-9, 4-5) finished the season strong, posting a 3-2 win at Susquehanna on Saturday, Oct. 24, then routing Wilkes, 6-0, in the season finale on Wednesday, Oct. 28, with a half-dozen Warriors scoring in the match. The Warriors needed all six points thanks to those two wins, as they edged Elizabethtown, who finished 2-2-5 in Landmark play, by a point.
Third in the conference with 29 goals on the season, the Warriors are led by a pair of high-scoring underclassmen: sophomore Leandro Cruz (Nottingham, Md. / Loyola Blakefield), who tied for second in the Landmark Conference with six goals and led the league with 16 points, and first year Connor Hussman (Bernville, Pa. / Tulpehocken Area), who scored five times and notched 12 points, both also top-10 marks in the league. Junior keeper Jace Bennett (Falling Waters, W. Va. / Spring Mills) was again reliable in goal, finishing second in the Landmark Conference with 67 saves.
Leading a youth-laden squad with only two seniors, third-year head coach John Schwein assembled a tough schedule to test the Warriors' mettle. Lycoming faced three current top-15 programs in the United Soccer Coaches poll: No. 3 Case Western Reserve, No. 7 Scranton, and No. 15 Messiah.
Catholic, under the direction of Lycoming College Athletics Hall of Famer Connor Keenan '14, started the season unbeaten in their first 15 matches before dropping a pair of games in the final two weeks. The Cardinals scored a league-high 38 goals while only conceding eight tallies, second-fewest in the conference. Seth Michalak scored six goals, tied for second in the Landmark, with seven other players scoring at least three times in a deep and balanced attack. Primary keeper Owen Allegro finished second in goals allowed per match (0.55) and notched seven shutouts in goal.
In the two teams' regular-season meeting, the Cardinals, ranked ninth in the country at the, time posted a 1-0 win, with Alessandro Marquez Zeleya scoring with just 24 seconds to play. Bennett made five saves for the Warriors in the match.
NCAA soccer rules change for postseason play with the addition of overtime and penalty kick shootouts. If the teams are tied at the end of a regulation, 90-minute game, then the teams will play up to two 10-minute periods of golden goal overtime, with any goal ending the match. If neither team scores in the overtime periods, the teams will advance to a shootout. Each team takes five shots, which must be taken by different players, and the team that makes more successful kicks is declared the victor. Shoot-outs finish as soon as one team posts an insurmountable lead. After five rounds, additional rounds are added until there is a winner.
