Hall Powerful in Home Heartbreaker

By Chase Maisonave and Sara Rinkunas

Dunmore, PA - Penn State Scranton Soccer hosted its first conference match up this afternoon against Penn State Beaver, 2-1. Complementary weather aided in the teams home opener as Scranton faught to crush the tie, yet ended up suffering a last second strike before the horn.

Penn State Beaver who was ranked third in the conference, was confident going in 3-0 againt Scranton young team at 0-4.  During the first half Beaver came down hard taking at least 12 shots on goal, all of them being saved by Scranton goal keeper Brandon Hall. Early on in the half Chris Toussiant, 23, assisted senior captain James Cole, 20, in a beautiful ball through Beavers defense which would give Scranton a lead of 1-0. Scranton's defense led by goalkeeper Brandon Hall , 00, kept Beaver at bay with Hall eventually saving 27 of Beavers 30 shots on goal. What looked like a game that was headed into overtime was a move by Beaver's offense as an offender struck a gap, sealing a 2-1 victory with 13 seconds left in the second half.

The game was marked by tenacity on both sides as physicality pushed Scranton to pick up the heat. Starting freshman Taylor Randazzo, 2, showed tenacity staving off Beaver offense. As the game tied both sides vied for a shot on goal which led to warnings and cards on the pitch.

Goal keeper Brandon Hall commented, "That was a crazy game. The team gave everything. The defense worked to make their offense take bad shots making the save easy.  This is definitly one of the best games I ever played." 

Scranton will go on to meet PSU Mont Alto on Wednesday, October 4 at 4:00 p.m. at their home grounds on campus.