Lions Kick Off Season With Thriller

Aaron Meehl's Goal | Jake Gamble's 1st Goal | Jake Gamble's 2nd Goal

ERIE, Pa. - The Penn State Behrend men's soccer team kicked off the season with an exciting 3 all tie against Geneseo in the opening round of the Herb Lauffer Memorial Soccer Tournament on Saturday morning.

In a back-in-forth battle that saw three lead changes, two scoreless overtimes, and seventeen penalty kicks made, the Lions fell just short of advancing to the championship game.

The Lions (0-0-1) got on the board first with an Aaron Meehl (North East, PA/North East) goal seven minutes into the contest.  Eric Vunovic (North Huntingdon, PA/Norwin) crossed the ball from the rights side and Meehl had a one-touch low shot to the left corner.  Geneseo junior Alex Stephan knotted the game at one-all with a first-half goal at the 23:10 mark.  Just six minutes later, the Blue Knights (0-0-1) took control by an Neil Allen goal.

Down by one goal entering the second half, junior Jake Gamble (Butler, PA/Butler) sparked the offense with a header at the 50:29 mark.  Jimmy Belack (Upper St. Clair, PA/Upper St. Clair) assisted on the goal for his first collegiate point.  Gamble netted another goal to give Behrend the lead off a direct kick eleven minutes into the second half.  The Lions maintained the lead for nearly 22 minutes before Allen notched his second goal of the day.

After, two scoreless overtimes, the game was decided on penalty kicks.  Geneseo will advance to tomorrow's championship by winning the penalty kicks 9-8. 

The Lions will be back in action tomorrow at 10 a.m. against Baldwin-Wallace.