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Sports
First win this season for Men’s soccer
By RayLynn Chraston Contributing writer
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On Sept. 10, the Mercyhurst Men’s soccer team took on the University of the District of Colombia (UDC), earning their first win of the season. The game took place at the Mercyhurst Soccer Field, which gave the men’s team an upper hand. By the end of the game, the final score was 4-2, Mercyhurst.
To begin the game, within the first seven minutes the UDC goalie received an early red card after he and sophomore forward Erik Cederberg collided. This then put the UDC Firebirds down a player for the rest of the game. The Lakers did not hesitate to take advantage of this situation. Sophomore midfielder Dylan Sumner, scored his first collegiate goal as a Laker in minute 17 of the game.
Freshman defender Nic Munch earned the assist after beating two of the Firebirds defenders before he had passed the ball to Sumner.
The Lakers kept fighting, however during the 25th minute of the game the Firebirds had scored, tying the teams with one goal each. For the rest of the half, the score held at a tie because neither team could capitalize on scoring a goal.
Going into the second half, both teams held a good competitive edge. However, in the 60th minute of the game, the Firebirds took a shot from the midfield circle lifting it over the head of Mercyhurst graduate student goalie, Jonathan Gomes, to take the 2-1 lead over the Lakers.
The Lakers regrouped and a spark within the team started to show on the field. During the 64th minute of the game the men were able to tie the game at two. Sumner scoring his second of the game after receiving an excellent pass from junior midfielder, Salvador Rang, on a free kick. Continuing to play hard, the Lakers were able to score again less than two minutes after the previous goal was scored. They took the lead as grad student and forward Nevada Elliott had scored his first collegiate goal as a Laker, receiving a lob pass from Sumner and beating the keeper to the ball at the edge of the box.
Still with time remaining in the game, Elliott netted his second goal of the game after receiving a pass from Munch. Elliot had made no mistakes after receiving the pass; he put it past the Firebirds keeper, which then extended Mercyhurst’s lead to two.
Throughout the game, the Lakers were able to keep up the trend of taking a lot of shots as they had made 14 shots with 8 shots on goal. The Lakers were also able to save two shots on goal made by the Firebirds.
This home game embarked many firsts for multiple individuals on the Men’s soccer team. One including the head coach, Ryan Osborne, as he made his first win as the head coach of the Mercyhurst team. Sumner and Elliot both picked up their first goals as Lakers, as well as Munch and Rang getting their first points of the season with their assists.
Coming up for the Mercyhurst Men’s soccer team, the Lakers will play two non-conference games against Shepherd and Salem next week.
Be sure to congratulate these Lakers for making many firsts and taking home their first win of the season!
Hurst Athletics photo
Forward and graduate student, Nevado Elliot, scored his first collegiate goal as a Laker in Friday’s game.
Mercyhurst football faces a loss against West Chester
By Sydney Dietz
Sports editor
On Sept. 11 at noon, the Mercyhurst Lakers football team competed against West Chester University. Unfortunately, the final score did not end in the Lakers favor with a result of 56-10.
“We cannot let last week’s loss tear us apart. To win next Saturday we have to stay together as a team,” Assistant Coach Tom Herman said. “We have to have a more determined attitude and establish a better running game. This will allow us to mix up the play calls more and keep them off balance.”
Mercyhurst took the lead in the beginning of the game, but West Chester scored 28 points in the second quarter allowing them to take the lead.
The first score of the game was set up by the Lakers defense. On a third and five for West Chester, Mercyhurst defenceman Ryan Funa got in front of a pass that was meant for opponent Desman Johnson and Funa returned it to the West Chester three-yard line.
With the Lakers having the ball at third and goal, quarterback Michael Lowery was able to find Jason Armstrong for the 11-yard touchdown.
This touchdown brought the Lakers ahead 7-0. However with 13:06 left in the second quarter, West Chester player Phil Poquie had an opportunity for a three yard run tying the game which made the score 7-7.
West Chester then scored a 67-yard touchdown which allowed them to take the lead and changed the score to 14-7 in favor of West Chester.
They continued their scoring streak by getting two more touchdowns in the last two minutes of the second quarter. This pushed the score to 48-7.
Mercyhurst then gained some points on the scoreboard by kicking a 30 yard field goal making the score 48-10.
In the second half of the game, West Chester scored 28 more points resulting in a final score of 56-10, and a win for West Chester.
Quarterback Michael Lowery finished the game 14 of 23 for 105 yards along with a touchdown. Chawntez Moss had 39 rushing yards and Jacob Holl had eight tackles.
“We are very fortunate to have an outstanding group of young men to coach. They are very hard workers and possess outstanding character. I am sure that they are upset with how they played and they will bounce back this week against East Stroudsburg,” said Herman.
The Lakers will take the field next Saturday in East Stroudsburg Pennsylvania at 1:05 p.m. The game will be live streamed for those who are unable to attend in person.
HURST RESULTS
Sept. 11: Men’s water polo vs Mount St. Mary’s: 12-17 St. Mary’s
Field hockey fights hard in weekend matches
By Gillian Mazur Editor-in-chief
This past weekend, the Mercyhurst field hockey team faced both Belmont Abbey College and Lindenwood University. The Lakers fought hard against their opponents in both games but ultimately fell short of victory twice.
On Sept. 10, the Lakers faced the Belmont Abbey College Crusaders on home turf at 3 p.m., Saxon Stadium. The Crusaders came out swords and shields at the ready putting three goals up on the scoreboard within the first quarter.
Mercyhurst goalie, freshman Kayla Desormeau, saved four shot attempts within the first 6 minutes and 30 seconds but was unable to save the fifth shot only six seconds later. By the eight minute mark, Belmond Abbey put another in the back of the net and scored their third roughly within the next three minutes ending the first period 0-3, Lakers.
The Lakers came out determined at the start of the second period with two penalty corners by Mercyhurst senior Alexandrea McDonald in the fifteenth and nineteenth minutes. Mercyhurst was also able to get in two shot attempts before Belmont Abbey scored again in the twenty-first minute making the score 0-4, Lakers. Shots were by junior Alexis Lovewell and freshmen Fenna Klok. By the end of the second period, the Crusaders scored for what would be their final time adding one more point to the scoreboard.
Fortunately after the second period, the Lakers were able to hold off the Crusaders for the rest of the game. Mercyhurst was able to put up eight shots throughout the entire match with three on target. Senior goalie, Libby Jones, was also able to save three shots against the five that she faced. The final score of the Belmont Abbey game ended in a 0-5 loss for the Lakers.
With a quick turnaround time, the Mercyhurst Lakers traveled to St. Charles, Missouri for play Lindenwood University for their first away game on Sept. 12. With Jones as starting goalie for the first away game, the Lakers faced the Lindenwood Lions.
Another hard-fought match, the Lakers held off the Lions until the very end of the first when one was able to slip through the net with 1:47 remaining on the clock. Unlike the Belmont Abbey game, the Lakers held down the fort and kept the score 0-1 for the second quarter despite nine shot attempts which were all saved by Jones.
In the third, the Lakers played a strong defense with Jones at the helm and were able to keep the points away from the Lions. With a single corner in the period, the Lakers narrowly missed the goal on this golden opportunity.
The fourth quarter is where the tide seemed to begin to turn at the end for Mercyhurst. Two minutes into the quarter Lindenwood scored once more after two more shot attempts.
After back and forth possession, Mercyhurst sophomore Jenna Cavalieri was able to gain possession for a fast break. Cavalieri passed to junior Sarah Vosburgh at the last second who was able to turn and score with 34 seconds remaining in the game. The end result was a 1-2 loss for the Lakers.
Hurst Athletics photo
Sophomore Jenna Cavalieri gets a fast break against Belmont University in the Sept. 10 game.
Tough loss for Women’s soccer home opener against Edinboro
By Sydney Dietz Sports editor
On Wednesday, Sept. 8, the Mercyhurst Women’s soccer team competed against the Edinboro Fighting Scots at Saxon Stadium at 4 p.m.
This was the home opener for the Lakers, but after a lot of effort and energy the Lakers were unable to pull off a win.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game, but we were excited for the challenge. Some of the decisions didn’t go our way, but it was a hard-fought game and we weren’t able to capitalize on our chances,” said senior forward Amata Valentini.
During the first ten minutes of the game, both teams kept going back and forth with their playing.
The fighting Scots drew a foul 15 minutes into the game, which in turn gave them a penalty kick. They scored on the penalty which meant the score of the game was no longer 0-0, and it was now 1-0 in favor of Edinboro.
In the first half of the game, the Lakers got 11 shots, three of which were on target. None of these shots got past the Edinboro goalie, Anna Voelker.
The Lakers kept decent possession of the ball throughout the game, but just could not get the ball past the goalie.
In the 75th minute of the game Edinboro scored bringing their lead up to 2-0.
However, in the 89th minute, Mercyhurst was finally able to get the ball past Voelker and into the net. Valentini got the goal for the Lakers after junior midfielder, Madison Hoover, passed the ball to Valentini off of a free kick outside the box.
Valentini’s goal changed the score to 2-1.
“I’m happy I was able to score to give us a chance to get a result at the end but unfortunately it wasn’t enough on the day,” Valentini said, “In our conference, every game is important so now we move on and focus on our next match.”
For the rest of the game the Lakers tried their hardest on the field to have a tied score, but unfortunately were unable to.
“We were still down 2-1, but everyone was fighting to the very end. I am proud of my team and the hustle that everyone put into that game,” Hoover said.
Mercyhurst was able to get 19 total shots within the game, with nine reaching the goal on target.
The Lakers kept control of the ball 62 percent of the time, and goalkeeper Maddie Elbro had four saves while in net.
“The ideal scenario is always to not have to make any saves as a goalkeeper, and I think we were fantastic in reducing their chances to only four,” Elbro said, “however, it’s of course a great feeling to be able to help the team out when we need it.”
On Sept. 11, the Mercyhurst Women’s soccer team played against Daemen College in Amherst, NY and lost 0-1.
The Lakers’ next match is set to be against hometown rival, the Gannon University Golden Knights. This game will be held at 7 p.m. on Sept. 15 at the McConnell Family Stadium at Gannon.
The last two games played against Gannon in the Spring of 2021 resulted in a tie, thus; this next match ought to be tough. The ladies will have to hold fast to beat their opponents.
Hurst Athletics photo
Sophomore forward Emily Mijares gets a breakaway play against Edinboro.
