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Men’s Soccer Rallies Before Falling to Abington in OT
September 8, 2012
Senior Nate Smith (in green) scored the tying goal, but Keuka's men's soccer team suffered a 2-1 setback in overtime to Penn State-Abington Saturday afternoon in the NEAC opener for both schools.
Senior Nate Smith (Hilton, NY/Hilton) scored on a beautiful 25-yard blast as the Keuka College men’s soccer team rallied to force overtime against Penn State-Abington in the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) opener for both schools Saturday afternoon at a rainy Jephson Community Athletic Conference.
But despite surviving a penalty kick and forcing overtime thanks to Smith’s 73rd minute goal, it wasn’t enough as the Storm (2-1, 0-1 NEAC) fell to Abington (2-0, 1-0 NEAC), 2-1.
Freshman Preston Vick (Kendall, NY/Kendall) made seven saves, including a diving stab at a penalty shot off the foot of Abington’s Julian Ward, who staked the Nittany Lions to a 1-0 lead four minutes into the second half.
Down 1-0, and with momentum slowly creeping towards Abington, Vick made one of the biggest saves of his young Keuka career. Ward ripped a shot towards the left corner of the goal, but Vick fully extended to his right on his dive and punched the ball out of harm’s way to maintain the one-goal deficit.
Earlier in the first half, Vick helped keep the Nittany Lions off the scoreboard with back-to-back saves in the 38th minute, before Ward put Abington on the board early in the second half.
Down to its last 17 minutes of regulation, Smith and junior Nate Schreiber (Hilton, NY/Hilton) helped the Storm pull even. Schreiber fed Smith with a through ball, and the former Hilton High School teammates connected on a well-timed goal. Smith got some separation from his defender before curling a beautiful shot into high into the far portion of the goal for his second tally of the season.
The two teams played a scoreless final 17 minutes of regulation, but Abington pulled out the win 7:41 into the first OT session. Andre Lynahping took a direct kick that glanced off the crossbar, and when the rebound came out to Josh Clinger, he sent a header high over Vick’s head for the winner.
The Storm was outshot 18-5 in losing its first game of the season. Keuka returns to action at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon when it hosts NEAC rival Penn State-Berks at the Jephson Communtiy Athletic Complex.
