10/20/26
 
SCRANTON, Pa. – Lackawanna College men's soccer will look for a bit of redemption this week after a tough loss at home on the weekend, as the Falcons travel south to take on the Golden Rams from West Chester University on Wednesday, October 21^st. Kick is set for 2:00pm ET at John A. Rockwell Field in West Chester.
 
Game Details
Who: Lackawanna College Falcons (1-8-5) at West Chester University Golden Rams (6-4-4)
When: Wednesday, October 21^st, 2:00pm ET
Where: John A. Rockwell Field, West Chester University; West Chester, PA
 
Video | Live Stats
 
Video Coverage: PSAC Sports Digital Network 
Fans who cannot attend in-person can watch live via the West Chester University channel on the PSAC Sports Digital Network. 
 
Live stats: https://wcupagoldenrams.com/sidearmstats/msoc/summary 
Live stats coverage is available and will be updated as the game goes on. 
 
This is the second match-up of the season between Lackawanna and West Chester, with the Golden Rams winning 3-0 on September 30^th in Dunmore. The Rams scored a goal in the 15^th minute against the run of play, taking advantage of a turnover, and then adding a pair of second-half goals to pull away. Read the full recap HERE.
 
The Falcons 
Lackawanna (1-8-5) enters Wednesday's contest after a dud of an appearance on Saturday at home against Shepherd, falling 6-0 to the Rams at Schautz Stadium. Lackawanna was a bit uneven early on against Shepherd, coming into the contest unbeaten through their last four matches, but a terrible final 15 minutes of the first half doomed the Falcons, as Shepherd scored four goals in the final 15 minutes, starting on a Lackawanna own goal, and the Falcons could never recover. Shepherd had a 17-to-11 advantage in shots, with eight on target. You can read the full recap HERE.
   
On the season, the Falcons have given up 27 goals, a 1.93 goals per game average, while scoring five goals this season. Lackawanna has 124 shots, 58 on target (.468 SOG), while their opponents have posted 187 shots, 66 on target (.353 SOG). The Falcons have 38 corner kicks, while their opponents have 76 corners this year. Lackawanna has had to make 39 saves this season, while forcing 53 stops from the opposition. 
 
First-year forward Miguel Pereira (Revere, MA) has a pair of goals this season for the Falcons, first on the team, with 13 shots, four on target. Pereira scored a goal in the draw with King's College on September 2^nd, and he scored the game-winner against Pitt-Johnstown on October 3^rd. Pereira played 64 minutes against Shepherd on Saturday afternoon, and went 74 minutes against West Chester in the first match-up.
 
Wisdom Afrani (Accra, Ghana) has one goal on 15 shots this season, second on the team, while putting five shots on target for the year. Afrani scored his first goal of the season against East Stroudsburg on October 7^th, tying the game against the Warriors in the 82^nd minute and helping the Falcons get the draw. He tied his season-high with three shots, one on target, against Shippensburg on October 10^th, with one on target. Afrani recorded one shot in 28 minutes against West Chester in their first match-up. Wisdom played 40 minutes against Shepherd this past weekend.
 
Malik Salau (Lagos, Nigeria) has a goal and an assist this season for three points, playing in 12 games this year. Salau has six shots, four on target, and earned his assist in the win against Pitt-Johnstown, serving up a perfect long ball for Pereira in the win for the Falcons. Salau scored his goal in the draw with Shippensburg on October 10^th, heading home a set piece in the 42^nd minute to bring the Falcons level. Salau played 79 minutes against West Chester on September 30^th, and went for 67 minutes on Saturday against Shepherd.
 
Tito Tokunboh-Salako (Columbia, MD) leads the Falcons with 20 shots, putting eleven on target this season. The first-year forward picked up the assist on Afrani's goal against East Stroudsburg (10/7). Tito has recorded at least a shot in his last five games, posting a season-high five shots, four on target, in the draw with Bloom (10/14). Tito played 65 minutes against West Chester in the first contest this season, and recorded a shot in 57 minutes against Shepherd on Saturday.
 
Two goalkeepers have seen action for the Falcons this season, with second-year man Kevin Nievas (West Palm Beach, FL) as the main keeper, starting nine games. Nievas has allowed ten goals in his nine games, a 1.39 goals against average, and has made 15 saves this season, with two clean sheets, which includes the scoreless draw with Bloomsburg (10/14) and the win at Pitt-Johnstown on October 3^rd. That was Nievas's first game back after missing three weeks with an ankle injury. He set a season-best with four saves against East Stroudsburg on October 7^th. He did not appear against West Chester in the first match-up. He went the first 45 minutes against Shepherd, making one save.
 
The other keeper is Rowin Thomas (Abilene, TX), a first-year student-athlete who was thrown into action when Nievas went down with injury. Thomas has given up 17 goals in eight appearances, five starts, a 2.49 goals against average. He has made 26 saves, posting a season-high six saves in a 1-0 loss to Shepherd on September 19^th. Thomas had his best game against Millersville, keeping a clean sheet in a scoreless draw for the Falcons. Thomas had four saves in 90 minutes against West Chester (9/30), and appeared in the final 45 minutes against Shepherd, allowing a pair of goals and making two saves.
 
Lackawanna College is coached by Will Flannery, in his first season at the helm and who took over the program in February earlier this calendar year. Flannery has coached and played collegiate soccer for the last ten years, previously serving as assistant coach at Lehigh University before coming to Lackawanna. In his one season with the Mountain Hawks, Lehigh made the Patriot League championship game and had six all-conference selections. Before his time in Bethlehem, Flannery spent seven years at Dickinson College in NCAA Division III. While there, he spent five seasons playing with the Devils, then transitioned into coaching immediately after his senior season concluded. Flannery became the first full-time assistant in program history and helped Dickinson achieve never-before-seen heights, including an NCAA Elite 8 appearance and finishing #6 in the national polls in 2024. He was a captain for three years while playing Dickinson. Flannery also has experience coaching at the youth level, working with the Lehigh Soccer Academy and Lehigh Valley United Rush. 
   
The Golden Rams
West Chester (6-4-4) enters the contest unbeaten in six of its last seven matches, with the only loss coming 2-1 against Millersville on October 7^th. WCU has won two-straight matches, beating East Stroudsburg 2-0 last Wednesday, and then knocking off Shippensburg at home, 3-0, this past Saturday. West Chester scored a pair of goals in the first half, scoring the opener in the eighth minute and the second in the 23^rd minute, and coasted in the second half to the 3-0 win. Shippensburg out-shot WCU, 15-12, and had eight second-half shots, but West Chester got four saves in the second stanza to maintain the clean sheet.
 
Two wins on the bounce now has West Chester (5-3-1) in first in the PSAC East standings on 16 points and qualified for a PSAC tournament berth. The Golden Rams still have a PSAC East game remaining against Shepherd (3-3-2), who is in fourth place in the East standings at eleven points. Second-place Millersville (5-3-0) is at 15 points, with games remaining against East Stroudsburg and Shippensburg. Third-place East Stroudsburg (4-1-2) is on 14 points, with games remaining against Millersville, Bloomsburg, and Shippensburg.
   
This year, West Chester has scored 19 goals, averaging 1.4 goals per game, while allowing eleven goals, under a goal per contest on the year. The Golden Rams have 148 shots, 70 on target (.473 SOG pct.), and their opponents have 174 shots, 82 on frame (.471). West Chester's opponents have 56 corners, while the Golden Rams have 65 this season. West Chester has 71 saves on the year, while forcing 51 from the opposition.
 
Maksym Komperda is a senior forward leading the team with five goals, and he leads the Rams with 28 shots, 15 on target, this season. Komperda has scored one goal five separate times, posting tallies against Mercy (9/9), Shepherd (9/27), Gannon (10/3), Millersville (10/7), and Shippensburg (10/17). Komperda had a goal on two shots against Shippensburg over the weekend. He had a run of four games where he recorded at least a point, posting three goals and one assist. That assist came against Lackawanna, and he had three shots, one on frame, in 49 minutes against Lackawanna. He scored a team-high seven goals with one assist for 15 points last season for the Golden Rams. 
 
Red-shirt senior forward Peter Tichy has three goals and three assists this season, while recording 22 shots, eleven on frame, both second on the squad this year. He had two goals against Shippensburg (9/12) and scored his third goal against Millersville (9/16), earning at least a goal in back-to-back games. He had two helpers in the win against Shippensburg this past weekend. He recorded an assist in 22 minutes against Lackawanna back on September 30^th.
 
Sophomore midfielder Lukas Bentsen has three goals and one assist this year in ten games. Bentsen has ten shots, seven on target, with a .700 SOG percentage this season. Bentsen had a solid four-game run where he had three goals and an assist, with goals against Wilmington (9/5), Mercy (9/9), and Bloomsburg (9/19), and the assist against Shippensburg (9/12). He missed two weeks of action and played 17 minutes against Shippensburg on Saturday in his first action back. He took one shot against the Falcons and played 48 minutes on September 30^th.
 
Senior keeper Jaden Howard is the main goalkeeper for the Golden Rams, starting 13 matches for the Golden Rams. He has given up nine goals, a 0.72 goals against average this season, and he has made 60 saves, boasting a .870 save percentage, with seven clean sheets on the year. Howard's best performance came against Bloomsburg, where he faced 15 shots and made ten saves in the 1-0 win for the Golden Rams on September 19^th. He had eight saves against Shippensburg this past Saturday, and made two saves in ninety minutes against Lackawanna on September 30^th. Howard has three-straight clean sheets heading into the game.
  
The head coach is Michael Benn, now in his 14^th season in charge of the Golden Rams. Benn has 140 wins in his time with the Rams, getting West Chester to the PSAC tournament in eleven seasons. He's been a PSAC Coach of the Year in three different seasons and has won or shared a piece of the regular season title in three of his last eight years. The Golden Rams have also made the NCAA tournament five times under Benn, including a national championship appearance in 2018. Before Benn joined the men's soccer program in 2013, West Chester had suffered through four straight non-winning seasons and had not advanced in a postseason tournament since 2002. His first season, the Rams went 13-4-2 and made the PSAC semi-finals. In 2016, Benn and the Golden Rams finished 11-5-3, making the PSAC semi-finals for the third time in four years and qualifying for the NCAA tournament. His 2017 squad went unbeaten through regular season play in the PSAC, the first time since 1996 that a team has done that, capturing the PSAC regular season title and once again qualifying for the NCAA tournament. 2018's team went 16-3-5, made the PSAC championship, then went on a run through the NCAA tournament before falling in the title game. WCU has made the PSAC playoffs every year, excluding the 2020 season that was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic, since 2016. Before coming to WCU, Benn was an assistant at Lehigh, where he spent seven seasons as an assistant. Before that, he was the coach at East Carolina for two years. He's a Lehigh graduate, earning both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Lehigh. 
 
Next: 
Lackawanna College remains on the road with a visit to Millersville next, set for Saturday, October 24^th, at 1:00pm ET at Pucillo Field in Millersville. Lackawanna will be back home on Wednesday, October 28th, for Senior Day against Central Pennsylvania College at 3:30pm ET at Schautz Stadium in Dunmore.