BOX SCORE
Center Valley, PA (September 22, 2007) – Sophomore Dustin Sturm (North Cape May, NJ/Lower Cape May) scored his first goal of the season with just under nine minutes left to list the DeSales University men's soccer team past Lebanon Valley College, 3-2, on Saturday afternoon.
The win is the first of the season for the Bulldogs who improve to 1-7 overall and snap an eight-game losing streak dating back to last season. The loss drops the Flying Dutchmen to 6-3 overall. DSU had endured a grueling start to the season playing three national ranked and sixth regionally ranked teams in its first seven games but used a two-goal second half effort this afternoon to get in the win column against a strong Lebanon Valley squad.
LVC took leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in the first half as Mark Johnson and Travis Steedle each scored to give the visitors a one goal halftime lead. Freshman Michael Felker (Middleburg, PA/Middleburg-West) put DSU on the board with his first career goal off a feed from fellow freshman Joe Yoha (DuBois, PA/DuBois) at the 22:28 mark of the opening half.
DSU struck quickly in the second half to tie the game as junior German Reyes (Beach Lake, PA/Honesdale) connected for his first goal of the season just 5:36 into the second half on a crossing pass from sophomore Marc Leonard (Bondville, VT/Burr and Burton Academy).
A back and forth game over the next 30 minutes saw the score still tied as neither team had any serious scoring chances until Leonard broke free on the right side of the field, beat one defender and fed Sturm in the box. Sturm took control with two dribbles towards the middle of the box and fired a shot just past a diving LVC keeper and into the net to give DSU a 3-2 edge and ultimately the win.
Lebanon Valley out-shot DeSales, 12-11, and held a 4-3 edge in corner kicks. Senior Rusty Riedmiller (Stroudsburg, PA/Stroudsburg) made four saves in between the pipes for the Bulldogs, while Tim Mehl made three stops for the Flying Dutchmen.
The Bulldogs will return to action on Monday, September 24th when they host The University of Scranton in a non-conference game beginning at 4:00 pm.
