10/21/24
 
DUNMORE, Pa. – Three second half goals and some rock-solid defense helped Lackawanna put together its best result of the season, a 3-0 victory on the road against a gritty Penn State Scranton squad on a warm Monday afternoon at PSU Scranton's soccer field.
 
The Falcons (4-5-0) were outshot and out possessed for long stretches of the match, but three goals in the final half hour of play, mixed in with some desperate defending, helped propel the visitors to the win. Edwin Garces (Ecuador) scored the go-ahead goal in the 61^st minute, and Thomas Esgro (Moscow, PA) and Tyler Pepsin (Old Forge, PA) added goals in the 74^th and the 86^th minutes, respectively, to help give the Falcons some cushion. Keeper Aldo Vargas (Scranton, PA) had three second half saves, and seven total, while his defense blocked three shots themselves to help preserve the clean sheet, the second in three games for Lackawanna.
 
PSU Scranton (6-6-1) outshot the Falcons 19-12, and had a 12-5 corner kick advantage, which included eleven shots and seven corners in the second half alone.
 
The teams were deadlocked at 0-0 all through the first half, with Vargas making four saves and the Falcons being outshot 8-5 by the Nittany Lions. The second half was pretty much the same through the first 15 minutes, but the breakthrough came in the 61^st, thanks to a mistake at the back from PSU Scranton. A free kick from the defensive third was intercepted by Guillermo Ramírez (Valencia, Venezuela), who nudged a pass towards Nahuel Minis (Old Forge, PA). Before Minis could swipe at it for a cross, a PSU defender arrived at the same time and the deflected ball flew across the box into the path of a charging Garces, who hit it in stride with his right foot and rolled it past the keeper into the bottom left for the 1-0 Lackawanna advantage.
 
The pressure tightened, and Lackawanna's defense did its best to hold the tide, saving one shot, deflecting another, and watching a third sail wide in quick succession. That hard-nosed defending paid off about ten minutes later in the 74^th minute of play. Capping a good spell of possession in the offensive third of the field, Sebastian Carmona (Scranton, PA) lined up to take a corner kick from the left side. Surveying his options, Carmona rolled a pass to the edge of the box to Esgro, who smoked a low line-drive of a shot into the bottom left corner that gave Lackawanna a 2-0 lead with just over 15 minutes to go.
 
PSU Scranton nearly got on the board in the 85^th minute, with a long free kick looping towards the net from the left side. Vargas almost misjudged it on the bounce, but managed to get his left hand out to just deflect the shot wide. A Nittany Lion player was there to pounce on it, but Esgro was right there to block the shot down and away from danger to a PSU corner. The Falcons avoided anything as the corner was knocked out for a goal kick, and Lackawanna's defense did the job again, when Esgro deflected two balls out for throws, and the third ball went behind for another goal kick.
 
Lackawanna was rewarded on that kick, when a long ball from Ermir Hoti (Gjakova, Kosovo) made it to midfield, where Pepsin poked it between two defenders, then raced down the field to chase after it. Pepsin blew past the last man, hit a low shot that the keeper missed, and scored his fourth goal of the season, which sealed the victory for the Falcons in the 86^th minute.
 
Lackawanna College ends its regular season at a 4-5-0 mark, and will now begin preparations for the Region XIX DII playoffs, which will take place next weekend, 10/31 through 11/2, at Mercer County CC in West Windsor Twp., NJ. More details, which will include matchups and game times, will be announced at a later date.