Eagles Eclipse Royals, Earn Spot in Landmark Championship Game
HUNTINGDON, Pa.- The Juniata men's soccer team earned a hard-fought 1-0 victory over the University of Scranton Thursday evening at Gibbel Stadium, punching their ticket to the Landmark Conference Championship game.
Shawn Tanaka scored the lone goal off a double assist from Brandon Marzula and Jayden Gaynor. Maxwell Mattioni made five saves in goal, putting in another sterling performance for the Eagles.
The Royals fired off the game's first two shots, with Mattioni being called upon to make a stop on the second one.
Nathan Weick ripped a shot over the goal for Juniata's first of the game, and Harshaan Grewal connected cleanly on a Marzula free kick into the box, but it was right at the Royal keeper.
In the 27th minute, Marzula pounced on a loose ball, and dinked a through ball to Gaynor in the box who sent it first-time to the back post to Tanaka who tapped it into the net.
In the final minutes of the half, the Royals played in a ball from near the halfway line that wound up at the feet of one of their players inside the six-yard box. He quickly shot toward the goal, but Mattioni was in the right place to scoop the shot up.
Juniata went into the half up 1-0, with the teams tied at four shots apiece.
The second half was tightly contested and featured excellent goalkeeping by both goalies. They both saved their best saves for the final 10 minutes of the game.
In the 84th minute, Weick laid the ball off to Jase Colino about 12 yards out, who fired towards goal, but the Royal keeper denied the shot.
A few minutes later, a Scranton midfielder played an immaculate through ball over the Eagle defense, which their forward ran on to at the 18 before blasting a shot at Mattioni that he enveloped.
In the final three minutes, Juniata had a scare when Mattioni went to collect a long cross from the left wing that was going to land just outside the six. He couldn't quite corral the ball, and it spilled out right in front of two Royals. He lunged forward and managed to punch the ball towards the right sideline, and Gavin Rauhut collected the ball.
Juniata saw off the final minutes to get the win.
The Eagles return to the Landmark Conference Championship for the second time in program history, with the last trip back in 2013.
They will host The Catholic University of America on Saturday at 7:00 PM.