Lackawanna College

10/28/26
 
DUNMORE, Pa. – Five different Falcons got on the scoresheet as Lackawanna College men's soccer had the breakout game it had been hoping for, blanking Central Penn College, 5-0, on Wednesday afternoon at Schautz Stadium.
 
The Falcons (2-9-6) were celebrating a pair of seniors, Wisdom Afrani (Accra, Ghana) and Edwin Garces (Ecuador), and Lackawanna played with an incredible amount of pressure and possession against the Knights, posting 30 shots, 18 on target, and 20 corner kicks for the contest.
 
That pressure wasn't resulting in much against the Knights (6-4-5) through the first half hour, but the Falcons finally broke through when Afrani darted in from the left side and slid a ball back to Miguel Pereira (Revere, MA) in the middle of the box, who calmly slotted it home for the opener in the 34^th minute.
 
The Falcons doubled the lead in the 38^th minute, when Malik Salau (Lagos, Nigeria) sent a cross from the right side that found the feet of Amani Byirinbiro (Scranton, PA), who put the ball in the back of the net to make it 2-0, a lead the Falcons would hold through halftime.
 
Lackawanna College kept the pressure on in the second half, earning 12 corner kicks alone, and that pressure paid off when Will Clugh (Shippensburg, PA) found the back of the net at the back post on a corner kick from Adrian Argote (Leonardtown, MD) in the 72^nd minute.
 
A fourth goal came when reserve Julien Salinas (Las Vegas, NM) connected with Cristian Lopez-Contreras (Chambersburg, PA), who scored his second goal of the season to make it 4-0 in the 78^th minute.
 
Lackawanna emptied the bench a few minutes later, and senior Garces got in on the fun in the 88^th minute. A long ball down the left side found Michael Durso (Waymart, PA), who raced down the left side behind the defense, then crossed it beautifully to a wide-open Garces. Edwin took a touch and managed to beat the keeper, as well as the charging defender, to score his first goal of the season and set off a wild celebration for the little-used senior who stuck with the program through four different head coaches and the transition to four-year competition.
 
Pereira was ruthless in attack, posting ten shots, seven on target, while Byirinbiro had four shots, three on frame, coming off the bench. Tito Tokunboh-Salako (Columbia, MD) had three shots, one on target, while Clugh and Michael Hoy (Mechanicsburg, PA) each recorded a pair of shots. Keeper Kevin Nievas (West Palm Beach, FL) had a save in 79 minutes of action, and Rowin Thomas (Abilene, TX) came off the bench for the final eleven minutes and made a pair of saves.
 
The win gives the Falcons just their second win of the year, and keeps Lackawanna moving towards a potential playoff berth in the United Small College Athletics Association playoffs in a few weeks. Lackawanna has one more regular season contest on the schedule, when the Falcons host Bryant And Stratton-Syracuse on Monday, November 2^nd, at 3:30pm ET at Schautz Stadium in Dunmore.