EVANSTON, Ill. — After a quick goal in the 13th minute off the foot of Trevor Koski and an assist from Michael Tahiru, followed by an insurance goal late in the 84th minute from Josh Luchini, Lehigh men's soccer used another strong defensive effort and elite goalkeeping from Will Smith to get a 2-0 victory over Northwestern at Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium Friday night. The victory marks the first time since the 2014 season Lehigh has started a campaign with a 2-0 record.
 
The Mountain Hawks wasted no time getting on the scoreboard to kick off the game, as Koski rocketed a shot from 25 yards out after a timely pass from Tahiru to get a 1-0 lead for the Mountain Hawks in the 13th minute. The goal is Koski's second of the season, third of his career and the second in as many games, after he was named Patriot League Midfielder of the Week for his performance last weekend. The assist is Tahiru's first of the 2019 season and the fifth of his career.
 
"I think there was really good build-up leading up to the goal," said head coach Dean Koski. "Coming out of the back, I thought we swung it around well and Michael made a really good decision to find Trevor on top of the box and Trevor just had some time and space and struck it pretty well."
 
Lehigh and Northwestern were scoreless for the remaining 32 minutes of the half, while the Mountain Hawks and Wildcats were tied with six shots apiece after the first 45. Of those two shots were four on goal in the first half, which meant four big saves for Will Smith to keep Northwestern at bay.
 
Tahiru, Blaise Milanek, Natan Rosen and a shot on goal for Tyler Dressman were the Mountain Hawks' best chances to get the score to 2-0, but the half ended with a one goal advantage.
 
"Tim Lenahan's teams are always very organized defensively and they pride themselves on bending, but not breaking," said Koski. "And I thought they did a great job, as expected of really trying to just contain our attack and our attacking players.
 
"And so, we got out of the half up a goal and that's what we needed to do in order to wreak havoc in the second half, so in many ways, we were fine. I don't think we gave them any good looks, we made a couple defensive mistakes, that may have given them a chance, but I didn't think they were threatening us in a way that we were concerned."
 
The second half was much of the same for Lehigh in terms of scoring, but the story once again was the offensive chances as the Mountain Hawks had nine shots, including seven on goal, while the Wildcats did not register a shot in the second half whatsoever.
 
"Our defense is playing really well as a group and candidly, I think it all begins with how we're pressing and pressuring teams," Koski said. "So all 10 guys out on the field are doing all they can to disrupt team's attacks and try to force them to play balls they don't want to play so that our backs can pick it up and I think our backs have done a great job so far of reading the game and reading where the ball is going to go.
 
"I think it's a coordinated effort of 10 players out on the field plus Will (Smith) and his communication. So this is how we'd like to play moving forward and this was a good test for us."
 
In the 81st minute, it was Josh Luchini who found himself with a quality chance, but was saved by Miha Miskovic. A minute later, Luchini finally broke through for his first goal of the season, a gorgeous shot from Nick Jennings that put the Mountain Hawks up, 2-0 late. The goal was Luchini's seventh of his career and the assist was Jennings' second in as many games after assisting on the game-winning notch against Manhattan.
 
One last chance for the Mountain Hawks occurred in the 87th minute for Koski, whose shot found the bottom left corner and was saved to prevent a 3-0 advantage. The Mountain Hawks held on for a 2-0 victory over Northwestern in the very first meeting between the two teams.
 
Luchini led the way for Lehigh with four shots including two on goal. Koski had two shots, both of which were on goal, while Tahiru, Dressman, Ikem Mbalewe and Andrew White each tallied a shot for Lehigh during the course of 90 minutes of play. Off the bench, Rosen was very active in his first career collegiate game with four shots including two on goal, while Blaise Milanek got his first looks of the 2019 season with a shot.
 
Senior goalkeeper Will Smith made four saves en route to his second shutout of the season and the 17th of his career. He has faced 13 shots on goal between the first two games of the season and made seven combined saves.
 
The victory also marks head coach Dean Koski's second win against longtime friend Tim Lenahan, the head coach of Northwestern. Lenahan now leads the all-time series between the two, 3-2 dating back to his days as the head coach of archrival Lafayette in the late 90's, early 2000's.
 
Lehigh will get right back to work on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET, when the Mountain Hawks take on Wisconsin from Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium to conclude the weekend away in the Chicago area.
 
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