Brandywine Bests Greater Allegheny 5-0; Moves On To Title Match

MEDIA, Pa. -- Top-seeded Penn State Brandywine will be back in State College to defend its Penn State University Athletic Conference men's soccer title next week after downing No. 4 seed Penn State Greater Allegheny by a 5-0 score on Friday afternoon in the tournament's semifinal round.

Brandywine will play for its sixth-straight league title and eighth in the last nine seasons on Wednesday against the winner of Saturday's semifinal match that features Penn State New Kensington and Penn State Lehigh Valley.

As they have done all season, the Lions put together a strong defensive effort, limiting Penn State Greater Allegheny to one shot attempt, which came late in the second half. Goalkeeper Elijah DeBooth (West Lawn, Pa./Wilson) went untested to earn his 11th victory and eighth shutuout of the season.

After receiving a feed from Jayden Barragan (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle), Christian Zavala (Kennett Square, Pa./Kennett) drove a long shot just under the crossbar for the Lions' first goal at the 16:57 mark.

Eleven minutes later, Lex Smith (Centreville, Va./ASU Preparatory Academy) was on the receiving end of Zack Bardwell's (Boothwyn, Pa./Chichester) cross and found the back of the net to double the margin.

Brandywine tacked on a third goal before halftime when Lukas Garthwait (Williamstown, N.J./Williamstown) struck a drive into the top of the net.

The Lions tacked on two more goals during the final 45 minutes as Chris Manful (Baltimore, Md./Woodlawn) slipped a shot through Greater Allegheny goalkeeper Chris Klinger's legs after beating two defenders and Smith added to his point total by assisting on a marker by Robbie Warren (Waldorf, Md./Westlake).

Brandywine held a 23-1 edge in shots and attempted 13 of the match's 14 corner kicks.

The Lions (18-0-2) will play for the conference championship Wednesday in Panzer Stadium in State College beginning at 7:00 PM.