By: Laura Chapman
Assistant Sports Information Director
chapmal@juniata.edu • juniatasports.net
Photo: JD Cavrich Photography
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – After surrendering a goal in the 16th minute, the Juniata College men's soccer team scored two second half goals to earn the 2-1 Landmark Conference win over Moravian College. The Eagles improve to 2-0-1 in league play marking the most conference wins in a season for Juniata since the foundation of the Landmark. With the win, Juniata men's soccer is enjoying the best season in program history eclipsing the previous mark of 10 wins in a season set in 1992.
"We're pretty excited about it," said head coach Dan Dubois. "I told the guys after the game. I'm not sure they had any idea. They were pumped to hear they got record for wins in a season. As for being undefeated three games in to conference, it's something we wanted to start out the season and now that its here, ok what do we do with it? How do we respond? We're excited."
Moravian took a 1-0 lead halfway through the first period. The Greyhounds outshot the Eagles 9-4 in the first 45 minutes and dramatically out cornered Juniata 7-0. The Eagles survived back-to-back-to-back corner kicks just before halftime to head into the break down just 1-0.
"The guys woke up after going down," said Dubois. "We've been starting slow recently, but towards the end we picked it up. We came out with some energy, but weren't playing smart soccer. In the second half we came out with both energy and smarts and stuck to the game plan the whole time and it worked out."
Juniata came out strong right after the second half whistle outshooting Moravian 9-5. In the 66th minute, junior Nick Stone-Weiss (North Olmsted, Ohio/North Olmsted) evened the match when he notched his third goal of the year off an assist from freshman Steven Stroup (Bedford, Pa./Bedford).
"We've been working with Steven on taking people on," said Dubois. "He got past a guy and took the ball all the way to the end line and crossed it back into the box. Nick was making a perfect near post run and put the ball in."
Less than 10 minutes later, Stone-Weiss assisted junior Robby Higgins (Middletown, Pa./Lower Dauphin) who notched his fourth goal of the year to put the Eagles up 2-1 with fifteen minutes remaining. The Juniata defense clamped down on the Greyhounds and was able to pull out the win to move to 11-2-2 on the year. In the 9th minute sophomore Ryan Tritsch (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) subbed in for an injury and gave a strong defensive performance in a high-pressure match.
"Ryan stepped in and did really well," said Dubois. "He hasn't had to play in that situation before. He had to play a bunch pressure minutes and he did really well through the whole match."
The Eagles continue their road trip on Tuesday at Susquehanna University. Juniata returns home Saturday, Nov. 2, at 3:30 p.m. in the second half of a Landmark doubleheader with the women's team against Drew University.
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