Scranton Strikes First but Falls to New Kensington

By: Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

On a picture perfect near autumn Saturday in the electric city, the hometown Penn State Scranton men's soccer team dropped a 5-1 decision to their visiting conference foe Penn State New Kensington. With the defeat, Scranton's overall record falls to 0-4 and 0-2 in the all-important conference play.

The Lions from Scranton got off to a red hot start to the contest and roared first on the scoreboard at the 11:16 mark, when senior Christian Pane assisted on a sweet goal from sophomore Raphael Carvalho to give their squad the early 1-0 advantage.

However, New Kensington would come storming back and score three straight goals before the final whistle of the first half blew. Ryan Wurzer scored unassisted to tie up the ball game at 1-1 at 19:01, then Jacob Guerrini scored unassisted shortly after at 21:06 to give his squad their first lead at 2-1, and then Guerrini scored again just over two minutes later at 23:41, when his teammate Jordan Cooper assisted it to him, and the road warriors took a solid 3-1 advantage into the break in action.

In the second half of play, it became the Cooper show for his New Kensington squad, as he scored twice to put the game away for good despite a spirited effort from the Scranton Lions. Cooper's first goal was assisted by Ethan Hutcherson and came at the 48:52 mark to increase his club's lead to 4-1. Kensington's fifth and final goal came just a couple of moments later at 50:17, when Cooper lit the lamp once again, this time assisted by Austin Arnold, to give his team the 5-1 cushion they would enjoy at game's end.

Scranton's junior goalkeeper Antonio Pugliese put forth a gritty effort, stopping four of the nine shots on goal he faced in the contest while playing all 90 minutes between the pipes in the match. Meanwhile New Kensington in goal was led by their winning goalkeeper Andrew Haus who stopped one of Scranton's two shots on goal in his 71:42 of solid work, while Ericson Kimbel II came in relief to finish up the final 18:18 of the ball game.

Now head coach Joe Baltrusaitis and his Penn State Scranton men's soccer squad will look to get in the win column and capture their first victory of the young season this Wednesday, September 21^st, when they travel on the road to play nearby Scranton school the Lackawanna College Falcons, with opening kick-off scheduled to begin at 4pm.