Gannon men’s soccer extends win streak to 6 straight; women lose in double OT

October 3, 2018

The Gannon University men’s and women’s soccer teams both had close matches last week, with the men prevailing in both of their outings and the women dropping a double-overtime thriller.
The men won their sixth straight match Saturday, beating Urbana, 2-1, at McConnell Family Stadium three days after blanking California University of Pennsylvania, 2-0, at home.
The women, meanwhile, fell 2-1 in double overtime to Lock Haven Saturday at home.
The men’s team improved to 6-3 overall and the Knights will take a perfect 5-0 record in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference action into a 2 p.m. road matchup Wednesday against Seton Hill University.
Gannon remains the only unbeaten team in PSAC play.
No other PSAC team has more than two wins in conference action.
In the men’s team’s battle with Urbana, the visiting team struck first with a goal from Benjamin Cancian at 17 minutes, 15 seconds in the first half.
The Knights opened the second half with a scoring chance from Austin Ludwik that sailed wide.
A pair of headers from Baran Kilic and Ludwik nearly put Gannon on the board right after Ludwik’s previous attempt, but the score remained 1-0.
Finally, Gannon’s Sam Thornton tied the game, 1-1, on his eighth goal of the season with 11:35 remaining.
The Knights were inches away from the go-ahead goal on a shot by Tyler Martin that was blocked and another shot from Abdullah Say that sailed high.
Six minutes later, Gannon snapped the tie, as Martin scored the game-winning goal off a corner kick from Srdjan Dujkovic.
Urbana held a 9-3 shot advantage in the first half, but the Knights countered in the second with a 10-0 edge.
Three days earlier against Cal U, Thornton raced through the middle five minutes into the match to score off a long pass from Ludwik, giving Gannon a 1-0 lead.
Gannon goalkeeper Hedi Mehnaoui denied a header from Cal U’s Eric Campbell with 10 minutes left to play in the half, and the Knights added three more shots before intermission.
With 30 minutes left to play in the second half, Joe Knox entered the game for injured Cameron Alexander.
Knox made the most of his appearance, scoring his first goal of the season off a Kilic pass. Kilic has four assists this season.
Cal U had one last flurry of chances in the second half, but two shot attempts were blocked and a final chance saved by Mehnaoui. Mehnaoui has made 16 straight saves over the past four matches.
The women started their battle against Lock Haven with an early goal in the 34th minute. Vanessa Coccurello played in a pass from Maddie North to score her first career goal.
With 8 minutes left in regulation Lock Haven’s Marah Foltz beat the Gannon defense to tie the match. It took two overtime periods to find a winner, but Foltz scored a second goal at 3:52 to win it for the Bald Eagles.
Lock Haven held a narrow edge in shots, 14-13. Hannah Pufpaff had a career-high eight saves in goal for Gannon.
The women, who stand 4-4-1 overall and 3-4-1 in PSAC play, will return to action at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Seton Hill and then will travel to take on East Stroudsburg at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
The men also will play at East Stroudsburg Saturday, with game time set for 11 a.m.