Box Score STEUBENVILLE – The Franciscan men's soccer team dropped its Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference opener to Medaille, 3-0, Saturday afternoon.
After a tightly contested first half in which both teams finished with five shots, Franciscan held a 2-1 advantage with shots on goal, the Mavericks opened the scoring in the second half early.
Lachlan Beever got Medaille on the board just 1:13 into the second half with his sixth goal of the season as he pulled sophomore keeper Brian Gaughan (Hopkinton, MA/Hopkinton) off his line and sent a pass from Carlos Espana into the goal.
Franciscan had a shot at its equalizer six minutes later, but a hard shot from freshman Nick Miller (Galena, OH/Ogletany) was stopped by the Maverick keeper.
Medaille got two quick goals in the 62nd and 63rd minute as Beever scored off a penalty kick and Espana got a goal of his own as he won a 50/50 ball in the box and just barely slid it under Gaughan.
Franciscan had some chances late in the second half as freshman Mikey Irvin (Steubenville, OH/Catholic Central) and junior Joseph Leonardi (Long Island, NY / St. Anthony's) each put a shot on net but were turned away by the Maverick keeper.
The Barons continued attacking but could not find the back of the net and the game ended 3-0 in favor of the Mavericks in a battle of two of the top teams in the AMCC.
Miller led the Barons in shots with five, one on goal, while sophomore JP Bobak (Grand Island, NY/Canisius) had three shots with two on goal. Gaughan finished the day with five saves on eight shots on goal.
The Mavericks held a 16-13 advantage in shots and a slight 6-4 advantage in corners.
Franciscan returns to action on Monday as the Barons host Bethany (WV) in non-conference action at 4:00 pm.
