Lions Top Hazleton 5-2; Clinch PSUAC Tournament Top Seed

HAZLETON, Pa. -- The Penn State Brandywine men's soccer team clinched the Penn State University Athletic Conference regular season title following a 5-2 victory at Penn State Hazleton on Tuesday afternoon.

Brandywine, now 38-2-1 against PSUAC competition over the last four seasons, will be the No. 1 seed in the PSUAC Tournament for the third-straight year. The Lions will host a semifinal match against either the No. 4 or No. 5 seed on Monday, October 31 at 3:00 pm at Maple Zone. Brandywine has won two of the last three PSUAC Tournaments, but was upset last season by Penn State Greater Allegheny in penalty kicks.

Tuesday's game featured a high-scoring first half that included six goals, with four coming from Brandywine.

It took just 54 seconds for the Lions to vault into the lead as Brad Martino (Malvern, Pa./Great Valley) scored off a feed from Brandon Crochunis (West Chester, Pa./West Chester East).

Bill Walleekendeh's goal at the 14:08 mark doubled the Lions' lead and Anthony Neufville (Wallingdale, Pa./Christ Academy) made the score 3-0 in the 34th minute.

However, just 52 second after Neufville's goal, Hazleton sliced the deficit to two with its first score of the match.

Neufville added his second goal with eight minutes to play before halftime off a feed from Walleekendeh, but Ben Pasuknis quickly brought Hazleton back within two 33 seconds later.

Brandywine allowed just three shots on goal during the second half and goalkeeper Joe Opdenaker (Lenni, Pa./The Christian Academy) was up to the task each time, holding Hazleton off the scoreboard the rest of the way. Brad Jule (Chadds Ford, Pa./Salesianum) added an insurance goal for Brandywine with under three minutes remaining in regulation.

Opdenaker stopped five shots overall, while Brandywine recorded 10 shots on goal.

Brandywine (12-1, 8-0 PSUAC), winners of 11 games in a row, closes out its PSUAC slate on Saturday at Penn State New Kensington at 1:00 pm.