Beaver Pulls Out Close Win Over Penn State Greater Allegheny

By: Evan Pinchot 

White Oak, Pa -- The Penn State Beaver men's soccer team traveled to Penn State Greater Allegheny for their final conference game of the season. The team comes into this game currently sitting in second place in the PSUAC standings. With a with in this game Beaver will finalize their spot in the standings and will go into the playoffs in a very good spot with the hopes of repeating their championship performance of last season. 

The game started off close, with both teams playing very tough and very hard in the first half. Greater Allegheny was the first to strike in this one, scoring in the 35th minute of play. They were able to hold onto this lead going into halftime as they stopped every chance that Beaver had in the half. 

The second half of play was a very hard battle, where both teams played hard to take home this win. Beaver really seemed to step up their game in this half as their depth really helped to power their way through a tired Greater Allegheny defense as the game wore on. In the 62nd minute, Beaver was able to find the back of the net twice, first off of the foot of Sophomore Julius Illiano, and then a second goal from Freshman Shelton Hilliard. Beaver held this 2-1 lead for about 10 minutes until Greater Allegheny tied this one up with an overwhelming attack on the net in the 71st minute. However, Beaver didn't let this discourage them and in the 73rd minute Freshman Romaine Thompson scored what ended up being the game winning goal for Beaver. The team was able to hold on to this 3-2 lead untl the end of the game as Beaver walked away with their final conference win of the season. 

Beaver took home the win in what turned out to be one of the toughest games the team has played all season. Thanks to a timely goal from Freshman Romaine Thompson, Beaver has locked up their second place spot in the PSUAC standings and will enter the playoffs with a lot of momentum, winning their last 5 conference games. With one game left to play in the regular season, Beaver sits at 10-7 overall while finishing with an 8-1 conference record. The team will return to action for their final game of the season on Tuesday, October 25, as they travel to Carlow Univeristy for a non-conference matchup. Game time for this one is set for 7 pm.