MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – The Penn State Harrisburg men's soccer team took the field knowing that their first night game on Wednesday, Sep. 12 would make for an exciting atmosphere. The stands were filled, the crowd was lively and the team got off to a great start against the visiting Albright Lions. Unfortunately, the second half proved the downfall for the home team as Penn State Harrisburg eventually dropped the match 3-1.
While the sun was out, things were looking good for the blue and white. After battling to a stalemate for much of the first half, Penn State Harrisburg senior midfielder Josh Bitner (Conestoga, Pa. /Penn Manor) took the ball and made a nice move past a few of the Albright defenders, before crossing a dangerous ball into the box with less than five minutes left in the period.
Good fortune followed the blue and white.
It was not a Penn State Harrisburg player who finished the great ball. It was actually Albright's Chris Bucks (Bethel, Pa. / Tulpehocken) who failed to execute his attempted clear that instead found its way into the back of the net, giving the hometown Lions a 1-0 lead with just four minutes left to play in the half.
As the sun went down and the lights came on, the blue and white looked good and continued to play well as the opening period came to an end.
The second half however, was a different story and the opportunity to get the team's record back to an even .500 was shaken up very early. The Lions gave up a score less than 30 seconds into the half when Kris Gross (Leesport, Pa. / Schuylkill Valley) fired his shot into Penn State Harrisburg's goal. It was not the end of the game, but it certainly made things more difficult moving forward.
Albright went on to notch a second goal when the team's leading-scorer Tyler Waters fired a missile of a shot that screamed into the upper left corner of the net from a touch angle.
When a Penn State Harrisburg defender took down an Albright forward with a hard slide tackle challenge in the box nearly ten minutes later, it was no surprise that referee awarded the opposing Lions a penalty kick. The shot by Albright's Shawn Murphy (Morgantown, Pa. / Twin Valley) wasn't pretty but it managed to make it past the already diving Penn State Harrisburg goalkeeper Charlie Hyson (Bel Air, Md. / Calvert Hall) and made it 3-1 with less than nine minutes to go in the game.
The blue and white fought hard to the end, just as they have in every game this season and Penn State Harrisburg Head Coach Seamus Donnelly commended his team for doing so.
"Effort and work rate are holding strong," he said shortly after the game. "At this point in the season we still have a lot to work on. Some things came together tonight but obviously not everything."
"At the start of the season we told the boys that we are not going to judge our success on wins or losses, we are going to judge them on performance," continued Donnelly.
That message has not been lost on his players. Junior forward Nana Nyantekyi (Howell, N.J./Freehold Township) said he expected the team to learn from the early season defeat as evidenced by his simple postgame statement.
"We'll build from it."
The Lions will start building from it this weekend when they open the all-important North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) portion of their schedule. Penn State Harrisburg's next contest comes this Saturday, Sep. 15 when they travel to Gallaudet.