After a disappointing first year in the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) the Men’s Soccer team looked to bounce back from a 3-13-1 record, and bounce back they did.
To start the season they were picked to finish 9th out of ten teams in the CAC. After starting the season off well, winning six of their first seven games, the team struggled losing their first two conference games to St. Mary’s and Southern Virginia. Most teams would have packed the season in from there, but after the team rallied together and beat nationally ranked Salisbury, the Blue and White started making more and more wave in the conference by again knocking off nationally ranked Christopher Newport.
After a strong regular season finishing with a 13-5-1 record the men were rewarded by being the 2nd seed in the conference tournament. After a bye in the first round Harrisburg drew St. Mary’s who had already knocked off the Lions earlier in the season. After a back and forth first half highlighted by a bicycle kick by Mike Jones (Harrisburg, Pa. / Central Dauphin) that just sailed over the crossbar the teams went in to halftime tied at zero. With stellar performances by both goal keepers, who combined to tally 11 saves, the game went in to overtime. After starting slow in overtime, the Blue and White found Jimmy Bilger (Slatington, Pa. / Northern Lehigh) in the corner of St. Mary’s end. Bilger crossed the ball in and found a unlucky St. Mary defensemen who deflected the ball in his own net breaking the 0-0 tie and giving the Lions the win in the 103rd Minute of double overtime.
From there the Lions would fall in the Championship match when Christopher Newport got their revenge 3-1. Harrisburg continued their season as the number one seed in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) South Tournament before falling to Misericordia in the finals by a score of 1-0.
With many of the key player from last year coming back for the 2015-16 school year the team will look to build on the success they had last year.