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Le Moyne College Athletics

JoeFalconeDribble
Greg Wall
0
Bentley BEN (2-6, 0-4 NE10)
1
Winner Le Moyne LEM (5-2, 2-2 NE10)
Bentley BEN
(2-6, 0-4 NE10)
0
Final
1
Le Moyne LEM
(5-2, 2-2 NE10)
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 OT 1 OT 2 F
Bentley BEN 0 0 0 0 0
Le Moyne LEM 0 0 0 1 1

Game Recap: Men's Soccer | | James McGlynn, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications

FALCONE EXTRA TIME GOAL LIFTS MEN'S SOCCER OVER BENTLEY

Syracuse, N.Y. - The Le Moyne College men's soccer team earned an extra time, Northeast-10 Conference win at home over visiting Bentley University with a goal from graduate student Joe Falcone (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius) in the fourth minute of the second extra time period. 

The Dolphins entered the contest with a 4-2-0 record while the Falcons came in with a 2-6 resume and zero Northeast-10 Conference wins. 

In the 12th minute junior winger Owen Bauer (Baldwinsville, N.Y./C.W. Baker/UNC Asheville), putting defensive pressure on the Falcons in their own defensive third, got his foot on a pass from a Bentley defender, deflecting it in the direction of Tom Henne (Hamburg, Germany/Gymnasium Buckhorn) who poked the 50-50 ball past a lunging defender and chased the ball towards the right corner flag. Henne got a cross off and sent the ball flying to the other side of the pitch to Michael Sparkes (Glasgow, Scotland/St. Ninians), who found graduate student Robert Rohrhirsch (Garching bei München, Germany/Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium Garching/Munich University of Applied Sciences) waiting at the top of the 18-yard box. Rohrhirsch's shot was aimed just under the crossbar, but Bentley goalkeeper Markus Foehr was able to get a hand on it and push it over the bar for a Le Moyne corner kick. Rohrhirsch took the corner kick, and played the ball towards the middle of the Bentley penalty area, where senior Jonas Schmelcher (Berlin, Germany/Schul-und Leistungssportzentrum Berlin/Bridgeport) put a header on goal that was deflected out of bounds by Foehr for another Dolphins corner.

With half an hour remaining in the first half, Henne sent a free kick from the right side of the field, about 30 yards from goal, towards the far post, directly on the left foot of Schmelcher who got loose behind his defender, but Schmelcher's shot rolled wide of the left post for a goal kick. 

Falcone, moving from the right touchline towards the middle of the field with the ball at his feet, found freshman midfielder Ziad Abdul-Malak (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius), who earned his first career start for the Dolphins on Saturday, with a pass across the field towards the far post in the 22nd minute. Abdul-Malak headed the ball back towards the near post to Sparkes, but a Bentley defender was able to poke it away from the Dolphins forward, only it rolled right to Bauer about nine yards from goal, who ripped a shot one-time that rose over the crossbar and behind the net for a goal kick.

Abdul-Malak, dribbling into the Le Moyne attacking third with just under 10 minutes remaining in the first half, played a ball on the ground to Noah Sperduto (Elmira, N.Y./Elmira) cutting across the Bentley penalty area from left to right. Sperduto, shadowed by a Bentley player, took a dribble to his right away from his defender before getting a shot off with his right foot that rolled across the face of the net and just wide of the left post. 

Le Moyne kept the pressure on to begin the second half, looking for the go-ahead goal. In the 63rd minute Rohrhirsch sent a through ball to senior forward Brandon Mimas (Baldwinsville, N.Y./C.W. Baker/UAlbany) sprinting free towards the net, but Foehr made a save to keep the game scoreless.

The Dolphins defense was solid all afternoon, only allowing one shot on goal all match. With 18 minutes remaining in regulation, a Bentley midfielder sent a pass to forward Johann Fraser in behind the Le Moyne defense, seemingly on a break away opportunity with only keeper Josh Mahr (Fayetteville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius) to beat, but Dolphins center defender Patrick Strauss (Lakewood, Ohio/St. Ignasius) came flying to the rescue with a clean sliding tackle to put an end to the Falcons attack. 

Falcone, who usually plays in the midfield for the Dolphins but was positioned up top for today's match, was active in the Le Moyne attacking third throughout the end of the second half and into the extra time periods. In the 84th minute he went by his defender on the left wing and sent a pass to Sparkes in the Bentley penalty area, but the shot was blocked. With three minutes remaining in regulation Falcone dribbled across the Le Moyne attacking third from right to left, probing the Bentley defense before earning a free kick in the left-center portion of the pitch just outside the 18-yard box. The free kick from Rohrhirsch was drilled into the Bentley wall. 

In the second minute of the first extra time period, Jack Goodrich (Kelsall, England/King's School Chester) made a move past his defender down the left touchline and dribbled into the Falcons 18-yard box before sending a cross on the ground towards the far post, but no Le Moyne attackers were able to get a foot on it and the ball kept rolling towards the opposite sideline. 

In the 103rd minute of the match, Falcone went at his defender in the left side of the Le Moyne attacking third, beating his man and sprinting into the Bentley penalty area, Falcone ripped a shot with his left foot on the ground that went past Foehr and into the bottom right corner of the net to give Le Moyne a double overtime 1-0 win at Ted Grant Field. 

After the game, in reference to his move from midfield to striker/winger in today's match, Falcone said it was nice to get up the field a little more and become more part of the attack. In regards to his game winning goal, which was his first of the season, and the team's overall performance today, Falcone had this to say:

"It felt good. I might not score a ton of goals but it feels good when that first goal comes, especially when it's an OT winner… Definitely wasn't our best performance, but there's definitely games that we're gonna come across like this that, it's just a grind, we grinded it out and that's really the positive we have to take away from this, but, definitely a little kick in the butt here to get going and start finishing teams."

The Le Moyne College men's soccer team improved to 5-2-0 overall and 2-2-0 in Northeast-10 Conference play following the win, and will be back in action on Wednesday, October 6 when they take on The College of Saint Rose at 4:00 p.m. at Ted Grant Field.

 
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