Scranton Lions Play Hazleton to a Draw

Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

Hazleton, PA. - In a Wednesday night battle on the pitch, the visiting Penn State Scranton Lions men's soccer squad snapped their three game losing streak with a hard fought 1-1 tie with local conference rival Penn State Hazleton. With the draw Scranton sees their overall record improve to 1-5-1 and they are all knotted up at 1-1-1 in the crucial league play schedule.

After a scoreless first half of play from both sides, Hazleton and Scranton each scored a goal in the second half and found themselves locked up in a draw at the end of the 90-minutes of thrilling action. The hometown Lions from Hazleton lit the lamp first at the 59:30 mark when Angelo Paniagua, unassisted, found the back of the net to give his ball club the 1-0 advantage. However, Scranton would show some grit and determination when they came roaring back late in the contest at 75:10 with the equalizer, as freshman Owen Sheils, assisted by fellow freshman Ryan Livolsi, tied things up at 1-1, a score that would stay intact when the final buzzer sounded.

On the goaltending side of things, Scranton's stand-out freshman goalie Ethan Lovelace was stalwart between the pipes, as he stopped a near perfect seven out of the eight shots on goal he faced while playing all 90-minutes of game action. Meanwhile, Hazleton's goalie Trevor Kisler was equally as stellar in net, as he also played the entire contest and stopped five out of the six shots on goal Scranton had in the showdown.

Now head coach Robert Denney and his 1-5-1 Penn State Scranton men's soccer squad will look to capture a win when they next host conference foe Penn State Lehigh Valley this upcoming Saturday afternoon with a 12 noon kick-off.