SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Slippery Rock University men's soccer team was unable to maintain an early one-goal lead as Le Moyne College came back to score three unanswered goals to defeat SRU, 3-1, Tuesday afternoon in non-conference competition.
The loss snapped SRU's two-match winning streak and dropped its record to 8-5 on the season. Le Moyne improved to 8-4 on the year with the win.
Senior defender
Ryan Lutke scored The Rock's lone goal off of an assist by senior forward
Peter Boylan. The goal, his second in the last four games, pushed Lutke's season total up to seven, which leads The Rock and ranks fourth among all Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference athletes.
Boylan's assist was his fourth of the season, which is a career-high and the fifth most in the PSAC this year. Boylan has now scored at least one point in three straight games.
The quartet of Lutke, Boylan, freshman midfielder
Justin Minda and freshman defender
Aaron Lambert all recorded shots on goal for SRU as well in the loss.
Lutke got The Rock out to a 1-0 lead in the 17th minute when he took a cross from Boylan and quickly buried a shot inside the right post from six yards out for the game's first goal.
Slippery Rock maintained its lead for the next 20 minutes of the first half until Le Moyne was awarded a penalty kick at 36:57. The Dolphins' Cal Filtch took the free shot and beat senior goalkeeper
Kyle Hoffer to tie the game at 1-1.
Le Moyne captured the lead less than six minutes later when Nick Rauscher scored on a header at 42:09 to send the Dolphins into halftime leading 2-1.
Slippery Rock successfully defended four shots and three corners by Le Moyne through the first 30 minutes of the second half, but was unable to find the equalizer with any of its four attempts as Le Moyne took its lead into the final stages of the game.
Filtch put any thoughts of a Rock comeback to rest with his second goal of the game in the 76th minute. Slippery Rock was unable to record a shot in the contest's final 14 minutes and Le Moyne went on to record the 3-1 win.
For the game, Le Moyne held advantages over Slippery Rock in shots (12-7) and corners (4-2).
Slippery Rock returns to PSAC play 12 p.m. Saturday when it hosts West Chester University at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.
