GREENSBURG, Pa.—The Barons were effective early on but were unable to sustain their attack, falling victim to some opportunistic goal-scoring in a 4-1 loss to the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg.

Franciscan looked dangerous at the start of the first half, with freshman forward Leo Herrmann playing at the top of the formation.  Three shots in the first fifteen minutes from Herrmann, senior midfielder Jesse Saltarelli, and junior forward John Imbimbo from inside the 18 either forced saves from the Greensburg keeper or rolled just past the post.  Herrmann's dangerous runs with and without the ball caused havoc in the Greensburg back line for much of the night, but he rarely had any support in the box.

Head coach Ward Rogers said, "Leo's going to draw a lot of attention in the middle of the field so we have to pull the center defenders out of the middle. The way we were bringing the ball down the sidelines and then playing the ball diagonally into the middle was creating those gaps."

The Barons fell behind in the twenty-fourth minute when an attempted clearance was headed back toward the Franciscan box.  The Greensburg senior striker Brandon Malloy won a foot race with senior center back Peter Herrmann and shot the ball past the diving goalkeeper Eddie Huber. 

Franciscan fell even further less than 10 minutes later on a corner kick. They failed to put a body on a Greensburg player in the box who slammed his powerful header into the top shelf.

 Although they fought throughout the second half, the team opened themselves up to further scoring from Greensburg who added two more goals to make the score 4-0. 

"When we let the other team score first, we start to get just a little desperate," Rogers said. It's almost like we doubt our ability, then we start to get a little bit frantic getting the ball forward to score a goal.  That makes us a little more vulnerable."

FUS was finally rewarded for their efforts in the seventy-third minute thanks to the continued effort of Leo Herrmann.  Imbimbo crossed the ball into the box and Herrmann finished strong with his head giving the Barons something to cheer about in an overall disappointing game that may have ended any hopes for a playoff berth.

"We are playing for other things other than conference glory," Rogers said. "We are playing for the glory of God.  We have to come back and play the next two games like they are championship games."

The Barons will kick-off their last two games of the season with a home match against D'Youville College on Saturday, Oct. 25.