MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – It was tough.  At times it was ugly.  But in the end, it was a win for Penn State Harrisburg.  In a match that saw a combined 29 fouls committed, the Lions overcame some very physical play and used two late goals from juniors Babjide Odusola (Harrisburg, Pa. / Middletown Area) and Jon Willingham (Harrisburg, Pa. / Sci-Tech High), as well as a crucial Deven Gerhart (Newmanstown, Pa. / ELCO) save to shut out Delaware Valley 2-0 on Saturday afternoon, Sep. 14.

In a contest dominated by the referee's whistle, scoring was hard to come by, especially in the early going.  The Lions' best first half scoring chance came when sophomore Isaac Amedza (Philadelphia, Pa. / Samuel Fels) collected a rebound in front of the Aggies' net and hit the left post with his shot in the game's 43rd minute.

Delaware Valley had a golden opportunity to put the first points of the day on the board early in the second half when a hand ball in the Blue & White box led to an Aggie penalty kick.  The visitor's Adam Roland was awarded the PK and he launched his attempt towards the lower right hand corner of Penn State Harrisburg's goal.  But Gerhart, the Lions' sophomore goalkeeper, made an incredible save when he dove to his left and deflected the shot wide of goal in the 53rd minute.

Gerhart's clutch defensive effort was reward twenty minutes later when senior captain Justin Henderson (Cherry Hill, N.J. / Cherry Hill East) made a beautiful move in front of Delaware Valley's goal to beat his defender before making a quick pass to Odusola across the box.  The junior collected the ball and fired his shot past Aggie keeper Chase Clement to give the home team a 1-0 advantage in the match's 77th minute.

Five fouls later and Penn State Harrisburg's advantage remained razor thin.  Willingham helped give his team some breathing room when he won a free ball and used his stout frame to shield an Aggie defender before breaking away from the trailing defense, making a nice move to avoid a diving Clement and tapping his shot into the back of the net, giving the Blue & White a more comfortable 2-0 lead with just 4:16 remaining the match.

"Today was a tough, tough game but it was exactly the kind of test we needed," said Penn State Harrisburg Head Coach Seamus Donnelly following his team's hard fought victory.  "I think we matched them physically as best we could and then we executed on key plays both defensively and on our goals, of course." 

When you actually analyze our squad we really are quite young so overall I am very happy, even if we currently sit at 2-3," he continued.  "We will get better and that's what we need to do heading into conference play."

The victory ended the Lions' recent two-game skid and reversed the team's trend of falling just short in close games.  Willingham's goal was his team-leading third of the season while Odusola's score was his second of the fall.  Gerhart made five saves on the day, including his thrilling penalty kick rejection, and picked up his first shutout win of 2013. 

Penn State Harrisburg will look to even its record at 3-3 when the Lions host former North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) rival Lancaster Bible in the team's next outing on Saturday afternoon, Sep. 21.