BILL ALBRIGHT

CentralPASportscenter.com Senior Writer

LOCK HAVEN – It was a mixed bag of results Wednesday at Jack Stadium as the Lock Haven University soccer teams rolled out the red carpet to East Stroudsburg.

In the women’s game, the two teams traded goals in a span of ten minutes, but in the remaining hundred minutes, neither team could find the goal in a 1-1 stalemate. In the men’s game, LHU held a 1-0 lead in the first period before the Bald Eagles exploded for a pair of goals less than 30 seconds apart as they defeated the Warriors, 3-0.

“I thought both games today were strange,” said LHU head coach Doug Moore. “No disrespect to the young people out there playing, but I thought they were both poor games. I didn’t think they were exciting, and I wonder if it was due to the warmer than usual temperatures and the kids having been in class all day. I was a bit disappointed with the performance of both teams. Normally there is a lot of action and I get excited during the games, but that didn’t happen for me today.”

In the women’s game, Julian Cree gave East Stroudsburg the early lead ten minutes into the game when she beat LHU goalie Dana Wozniak with a high shot inside the near post.

The Lady Eagles tied the game twenty minutes into the game when Jamie Hunter fed Katie Eichman with a nifty pass and Eichman squeezed the ball by ESU keeper Brittan Wagner and the post for the tying goal.

On the heels of the tying goal, the Lady Eagles came within inches of taking the lead when a shot by Jenna Hunter hit the crossbar and bounced over the net.

During the final 24 minutes of the half, neither team seriously threatened as the 1-all deadlock remained at halftime.

In the second half, neither team was able to determine territorial dominance and the two teams headed to overtime. In the extra periods, the flow of the game was much the same as it was in the second half as the two teams combined for just five shots, three by the Lady Eagles and two by ESU.

In a very physical men’s game, shots were few and far between in the first half as the two clubs only showed a combined total of five tries. Jacob Oldaker was the main offensive force for the Bald Eagles as he had four of the five shots in the first 37 minutes. After coming up empty on his first four attempts, Oldaker’s persistence paid off as he received a nice lob pass from keeper Chris Frederick, and the forward drilled the ball past Warrior keeper Callum Hampson for the game’s first goal.

“Our team does a great job finding me up top,” said Oldaker. “With our guys in the midfield doing a great job of swinging the ball to me, it makes it easy. I run the routes, but it is those guys who get the ball to me.”

Following the Oldaker goal, the two teams went back to marking and checking each other until the Bald Eagles exploded for a pair of goals in the span of just 26 seconds.

“Notice when we scored those two goals,” said Moore. “We had some hard words at halftime because it was not a satisfactory performance up to our standards. Our intention was to go out and blow this game wide open in the next ten minutes which we did.”

Ben Weaver did the honors for the Haven’s second goal as he guided the ball into the net following a block of Oldaker’s shot by ESU keeper Hampson. Twenty-six seconds later, it was again Oldaker and Weaver getting into the act one more time as Weaver set up Oldaker for his second goal of the match. The goal was the result of a thru ball to the right that was drilled through the keeper’s legs by Oldaker.

“Weaver brings great pace to the outside,” said Oldaker. “Asher (Klahold) swung the ball, I went through and that gave Weaver and I the opportunity to work one-on-one with the goalie.”

The LHU-ESU matches have always been hotly contested because the two programs have been arch-rivals in PSAC soccer and have been for many, many years.

“It has been that way, but I didn’t think that today’s game reflected that,” Moore added. “It wasn’t the high tempo battle that LHU and ESU have been involved in many times. I am happy to get the win, but again, I didn’t think it was a game that reflected our standards of play. We didn’t play very well and we still got the ’W’ so that probably argues well.”

While Moore didn’t feel the emotions of a rival game, Oldaker admitted that he could feel the intensity on the field.

“That was a big rivalry game for us today,” Oldaker said. “Bringing another piece into that game, we had already dropped two (conference games) and this was a big one to help us stay up there (in the standings) to make the playoffs. Right now we are trying to make a big push to get to the post-season so it was a big game for us.”

As for the physicality of the game, Moore felt that some of the calls were somewhat questionable.

“There were a lot of cards out there and I thought a number of them were rather petty calls,” he said. “When you have those kinds of calls, it breaks up the rhythm of the game. But in the end, it is in the record books as a three-nil win for us and that is good for our young kids.”

Now 5-4-1 overall and 2-2 in the conference, the next action for the Bald Eagles will be Saturday when they travel to Bloomsburg for a 3:30 battle with the Huskies.

On the women’s side of things, the Lady Eagles now sport a mark of 5-3-2 overall, 2-3-2 in conference action. Their next action will also be Saturday in a 1:00 p.m. kickoff against the Lady Huskies.