BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Senior Oscar Greene scored in the game's second minute, but Binghamton responded with two second-half goal to down the Lehigh men's soccer team, 2-1 on Friday evening at the Ulrich Sports Complex. The loss snaps a mini two-game winning streak for the Mountain Hawks and drops their record to 2-3-0 on the season.
 
"I thought we did all the phases of the game except when we needed to defend in critical moments, we didn't do a good job there," said head coach Dean Koski. "When you keep any Division I team around, whether it's a team that's 0-3-1 or 3-0-1, Division I soccer players are good, Division I coaches are good and they'll find ways. We had chances to put the game away, we didn't and that ended up biting us in the foot because it changed the whole complexion of the game. I thought we did a poor job of responding to their goal. Next thing you know they're up 2-1 and are really trying to press it, so it's a really disappointing loss."
 
The Mountain Hawks quickly took a 1-0 lead as freshman Josh Luchini, who was stationed near the end line, centered to Greene. Greene's subsequent one-timer beat Binghamton goalkeeper Chris Shutler at the 1:47 mark.
 
Lehigh finished the first half with a 12-4 edge in shots, with none of Binghamton's four first-half shots on goal. The Mountain Hawks had three other shots on target in the first half, from sophomore Trevor Koski in the 16th minute, senior Mark Forrest in the 21st minute, Luchini in the 30th minute and freshman Nick Jennings just moments later.
 
Lehigh came out of halftime with three shots and two corner kicks in the first five minutes, but couldn't convert. Less than nine minutes later, the Bearcats pulled even, converting their first shot on goal into the equalizer as Connor McKnight beat junior Will Smith with a perfectly-placed shot from distance into the top right corner of the goal in the 59th minute.
 
Binghamton took its first lead in the 82nd minute. Following a short corner, Noah Luescher made a feed through traffic towards goal, which Andrew MacDonnell finished to give the Bearcats a 2-1 advantage.
 
Lehigh had a glittering chance to pull even in the 87th minute as Forrest made a nifty feed to his left to freshman Michael Tahiru, but Tahiru's low lefty shot barely missed the far right post.
 
Final shots were 17-10 in favor of Lehigh while Binghamton held a 6-5 edge in corner kicks. Smith made one save for the Mountain Hawks while Shutler had four for Binghamton, all coming in the first half.
 
"We will look at the areas we need to improve upon," said Koski. "This is a tough sport where it's low scoring, there's so much parity and we just have to prepare this team for every opponent. While this game is behind us, we'll look at decisions we made as a coaching staff and we'll look at our tactical adjustments and decide whether or not we need to tweak those. At the end of the day, we have to move on and get ready for our next game."
 
Lehigh's next game will be on Tuesday when it travels to Rider to face the Broncs. Opening kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
 
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