9/30/26
 
SCRANTON, Pa. – A week after dropping its last contest, and a few days after an exhibition match-up at Eastern, Lackawanna College men's soccer will get back to work on Wednesday, September 30^th, with a home contest against West Chester University. Kick is set for 3:30pm ET at Schautz Stadium in Dunmore.
 
Game Details
Who: West Chester University Golden Rams (3-3-2) at Lackawanna College Falcons (0-6-2)
When: Wednesday, September 30^th, 3:30pm ET
Where: Schautz Stadium; Dunmore, PA
 
Video | Live Stats | Tickets
 
Video Coverage: Lackawanna College Athletics Network
Fans who cannot attend in-person can watch along live via the Lackawanna College Athletics Network, as well as the PSAC Sports Digital Network.
 
Live stats: https://lackawannafalcons.com/sidearmstats/msoc
Live stats coverage is available and will be updated as the game goes on.
 
Tickets: https://lackawannafalcons.com/tickets
Fans can purchase their game tickets in advance, or via cashless methods in person. There is no cash option for Lackawanna College Athletics tickets.
 
The Falcons
Lackawanna (0-6-2) fell behind early when Shippensburg scored just seven minutes in last Wednesday, and the Falcons were on the back foot for the rest of the game, eventually falling 3-0 to the Raiders. Shippensburg outshot the Falcons, 20-6, with eight shots on target, and the Raiders had a 7-to-3 advantage in corner kicks. Lackawanna played a lackluster first half, but was much better in the second, missing two narrow chances to tie the game, and Shippensburg eventually found a penalty midway through the second half, and a third goal in the 80^th minute. You can read the full recap HERE.
 
Tito Tokunboh-Salako (Columbia, MD) had two shots, one on target, while Donnie Frayer (Odenton, MD) had one shot, one on target. Byron McNeil (Springfield, IL) had one shot, and Aydin Boyunegmez (Millville, PA) also had a shot. Rowin Thomas (Abilene, TX) had five saves.
 
On the season, the Falcons have given up 16 goals and scored two in six games this year. Lackawanna has 69 shots, 27 on target (.391), with their opponents posting 119 shots, 39 on target (.328). The Falcons have 24 corner kicks, while their opponents have 53 corners this year.
 
Cristian Lopez-Contreras (Guatemala) has the assist on each goal for the Falcons, and the goal scorers are Boyunegmez and Miguel Pereira (Revere, MA). Boyunegmez's goal came against Berkeley on September 5^th, a header off a free kick from Lopez-Contreras. Pereira's goal came in the draw against King's College. Tokunboh-Salako leads the team with ten shots, five on target, and Lopez-Contreras is second with nine shots and five on frame. Wisdom Afrani (Accra, Ghana) also has nine shots, three on target.  
 
In between the pipes, Kevin Nievas (West Palm Beach, FL) has four saves and has started in the first four games for the Falcons, but has missed time with an injury. Thomas has 20 saves this year and has made six appearances, starting the last four games for the Falcons. His season-high six stops came against Shepherd.
 
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 at Dickinson. Flannery also has experience coaching on the youth level, working with the Lehigh Soccer Academy and Lehigh Valley United Rush.
 
The Golden Rams
West Chester (3-3-2) enters the contest with a pair of 1-0 wins and a 1-0 defeat in its last three games, including a 1-0 win at home against Shepherd this past Sunday. In a battle of the Rams, WCU and Shepherd were locked at 0-0 entering the 83^rd minute. The first half was tight, and the second half saw both teams looking for the breakthrough, but it came when a WCU cross found the foot of Maksym Komperda, who rocketed the ball into the net to give West Chester the lead and, eventually, the win.
 
West Chester sits tied for second in the table with Millersville in the PSAC East, stuck on nine points. East Stroudsburg leads the pack at 3-0-1 in conference play with ten points, while the Marauders are 3-1-0 at nine points, and WCU is 3-2-0 at nine points.
 
West Chester has scored eight goals this season, while allowing seven. The Golden Rams have 82 shots, 36 on target (.439), and their opponents have 96 tallies, 53 on frame (.552). West Chester's opponents have 32 corners, while the Golden Rams have 38 this season. West Chester has 46 saves on the year, while forcing 28 from the opposition.
 
Sophomore midfielder Lukas Bentsen has three goals and one assist this season. He scored all his points in four-straight games, scoring a goal each against Wilmington and Mercy in back-to-back games, then assisting on a goal against Shippensburg, before scoring against Bloomsburg on September 19^th. He has not scored in the last two games, and only played 35 minutes against Shepherd. He has nine shots, six on target.
 
Red-shirt senior forward Peter Tichy has three goals this season, with two coming against Shippensburg and one against Millersville in back-to-back games earlier this year. Tichy has 13 shots, nine on frame, and has played in all eight games for the Rams this season.
 
Komperda is a senior forward who has scored a pair of goals this year, scoring his first against Mercy. Komperda leads the Rams with 15 shots, seven on target, this season. He scored a team-high seven goals with one assist for 15 points last season for the Golden Rams.
 
Senior keeper Jaden Howard is the main goalkeeper for the Golden Rams, making seven appearances and seven starts on the year. He has given up five goals and made 36 saves, boasting a .878 save percentage, and he has three clean sheets this season. 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 six saves in the clean sheet against Shepherd on Sunday.
 
The head coach is Michael Benn, now in his 14^th season in charge of the Golden Rams. Benn has 137 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
Next up, Lackawanna College will make the trip out west to take on a PSAC West opponent, the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown Mountain Cats, on Saturday, October 3^rd. Kickoff is set for 3:00pm ET at the Pitt-Johnstown soccer field.