ERIE, Pa. – The Franciscan men's soccer team's season came to an end Wednesday night as the No. 4 Barons fell to top-seeded Penn St.-Behrend Lions 5-2 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference semifinal matchup.
The Lions took a quick 2-0 in the first 25 minutes of action and pushed their lead to 3-0 just 11 minutes into the second half. Franciscan began to turn its momentum around, though, less than a minute after the Lions' third goal. Junior Jake Rigaud placed a long pass on the far post for sophomore Sebastian Koehler as he put away his team-leading 10th goal of the season to cut the lead back down to two, 3-1.
Franciscan was able to get two more quick shots off but Lion keeper, Chris Ralph, was able to make a pair of saves to keep Franciscan at bay.
After a pair of saves by sophomore Brian Gaughan, the Lions found the back of the net for the fourth time in the 69th minute and took back control of the game. The Lions scored their final goal of the game with less than four minutes to play to give the hosts a 5-1 lead.
With just three seconds left on the clock, sophomore JP Bobak scored his fifth goal of the season to bring the score to its final, 5-2, in favor of the Lions. Senior Brennan McNamara sent a pass from the left of the net to the right post and Bobak got his head on the ball and blasted it over Ralph's hands.
The Lions held a slim 15-10 lead in shot and an 8-2 advantage in corners.
Gaughan finished the day with five saves to bring his single-season total to 87, a program record. The sophomore posted 12 wins for the year and a 1.35 GAA for the year, both of which are single-season records for the Barons.
Franciscan wrapped up the 2018 campaign with a record of 12-7, a program best in wins, and advanced to the AMCC tournament semifinal game for the second year in a row.
