McKeesport, PA. – The Penn State Greater Allegheny Men’s Soccer team (1-8-1, 0-6-1) enters the final week of the regular season when they take on Penn State Mont Alto (8-7-1, 2-4-1) on Wednesday at 4 p.m. After a slow start to the year, PSUGA is looking to finish strong as they head towards the off-season and look towards the 2020-2021 season.
The offense continued their recent string of getting better each game putting up a season-high 20 shots in the team’s 2-1 loss to Penn State York last time out. PSUGA got on the board 23 minutes into the first half when Dario Marina (Pittsburgh, PA./Baldwin HS) scored his team-high fourth goal of the season to put PSUGA ahead 1-0. Marina took a pass from Justin Kindig (Harrisburg, PA./Central Dauphin HS) and found the back of the net to give PSUGA their first lead in a game since September 9th.
They carried that lead into halftime and entered the break on top of York 1-0. However, the offense couldn’t keep up the success in the second half, and two late goals from PSU-York lifted them to a 2-1 win and dropped PSUGA to 0-6-1 in Penn State University Athletic Conference play this season.
With two games left in the 2019-2020 regular season, head coach Dale Odim and his team are focusing on getting better and working towards a brighter future for the PSUGA soccer program. Despite the record, there have been many positives for the team to build on moving forward. Most of their young talent returns next season and will bring a year of experience with them that will help them be more successful.
For now, they have a chance to play spoiler when they take on a PSU-Mont Alto team that is clinging to the number six seed in the PSUAC standings. Mont Alto has struggled as of late going just 1-3-1 in their last five games but defeated Patrick Henry College their last time out 4-1. Mont Alto used first-half goals by Adrian Casey and Alex Call to take the early 2-0 lead and never surrendered the rest of the game-winning 4-1.
Previous Match-ups
In six previous match-ups with PSU-Mont Alto, PSUGA has faired well going 5-1 during that stretch. Their last game came on October 11th, 2018, when PSUGA came away with a 2-0 win. Former Lions Idriss Benjelloun and Belmo Nurkic got the scores while Jagesh Subba earned two assists in the game.
Kick-off for Wednesday’s game is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Penn State Mont Alto Soccer Field.