#16 Mercy Hands Men’s Soccer First Loss of the Year

DOBBS FERRY, N.Y.  (September 12, 2019) – After beginning the season with two consecutive shutout victories, the Franklin Pierce University men's soccer team suffered their first loss of the 2019 campaign, a 2-1 decision to non-conference and no. 16 nationally-ranked Mercy College on Mercy Field Thursday afternoon. The loss sends the Ravens to 2-1-0 on the year while the Mavericks move to 2-0-1.    

Both teams struggled to get any offense going in the first half until Mercy broke the deadlock at the 43rd minute. A turnover at midfield gave the Mavericks possession. Ignacio Mangada lofted a cross towards the far right post to Manuel Achondo and he headed the ball towards the high right side of the cage just out of the reach of starting Raven netminder Jadel Poon-Lewis (Diego Martin, Trinidad and Tobago). Gaston Rozenblum was also credited with an assist on the score.

In the first half, the Ravens outshot the Mavericks 5-to-4 while corner kick opportunities were even (3-to-3). For the game, Pierce held the advantage in corner kicks (8-to-3) while both teams took an even amount of shot attempts (9-to-9).

In the second half, the Ravens were lined up for a free kick in the 53rd minute. Graduate forward Javier Gonzalez Carraminana (Madrid, Spain) booted the ball towards the box, however, an offside was called on FPU halting their threat. A few minutes later, Pierce had a corner kick opportunity that was cleared out of their attacking zone by the Mercy defense.

The Ravens kept attacking Mercy, but could not get a shot to fall despite having a couple of free-kicks and five corners. The Mavericks expanded their edge in 86th minute when a cross from the right post was deposited by Maximiliano Rebolledo-Camus back heel in front of the cage to make it a 2-0 game.

Graduate forward Stefan Lohberger (Schoellnach, Germany) brought the deficit 2-1 with 23 seconds to go as he played a pass off his chest from junior forward Yannik Felber (Vallendar, Germany) and immediately fired a shot into the right side of the net.

Poon-Lewis earned his second start of the season and made one save in the loss. Graduate goalie Clay Thomas (Dracut, Mass.) came on in relief and stopped two shots while taking the loss.

Franklin Pierce wraps up their non-league slate of games and continues their three-game road trip next Tuesday, September 17th at Queens (N.Y.) College for a 4:00 p.m. first kick.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://fpuravens.com). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (https://fpuravens.com/store). You can also follow the men's soccer team on Twitter (https://twitter.com/fpumsoccer), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/fpumsoccer/) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/fpumsoccer/).