MEN’S SOCCER

With Friday afternoon’s 3-1 win over Point Park, the HU men’s soccer team advances to the championship game of the Blue Devil Classic where they will face host Lawrence Tech at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday.

While it was a 1-1 deadlock after the first 45 minutes of play, Lawson’s crew felt firmly in control from the get go.

“Our energy right from the first whistle which is where it needed to be,” said Lawson. “Most of first half was ours to have, we had good quality through the middle park we just lacked the final piece.”

The first half saw HU generate ten shots to Point Park’s two with Luke Unger logging the game’s first goal at the 14:35 mark compliments of a quick combination play with Ty Sproat and Matheus Louzada that allowed Unger to get in behind to slam it home.

The Pioneers countered less than five minutes later for the 1-1 tie that carried to break.

The second half was similar to the first in regards to Huntington’s dominance but this time HU was able to find back netting a few more times. Eleven minutes into the period, Travis Hurtis found Sproat for his third goal of the season.

Less than 60 seconds later, Jake Erlandson rose above the rest to get his head on a ball Guilherme Lins Souza served into the box on a restart for a 3-1 advantage that PPU wouldn’t touch.

“This was a fantastic response from Monday’s loss,” said Lawson. “We played very organized through the middle with some good pressure. We took away options from them which is always pleasing to see.”

HU tallied ten shots in each half, 14 on frame, while limiting the Pioneers to a total of six shots, three on target, over the 90 minutes.

Gabe Greenfield earned the win in net.

Today’s matchup with the Pioneers is the first meeting between these two teams and Point Park’s first loss of the year.

Huntington moves to 3-1 on the year. Through four games, the Foresters are giving up, on average, just over one goal a game.