Theon Francis scored two goals and Alexander McNeill added an important insurance tally to lift the streaking Lincoln University of Pennsylvania men’s soccer team to a 3-1 victory over Columbia Union College Sunday afternoon.
“Beating Columbia Union is a great accomplishment for us,” McNeill said. “A victory like this gives us a lot of confidence heading into to the rest of our schedule. Columbia Union was a really good team and they had a lot of skill.”
Again, the Lions received contributions from everybody in beating Columbia Union (6-3) for the first time since 2006. Sophomore goalie Andre Wilkinson finished with 14 spectacular saves to help Lincoln improve its home record to 3-1 overall. Wilkinson made a special save midway through the first half when he made a beautiful kick save on a breakaway attempt from a Columbia Union player.
Lincoln was opportunistic, making the most of its scoring chances despite being outshot, 26-9.
Francis started the scoring for Lincoln in the first half with a blast from the left side of the box that found the upper right corner in the 30th minute to give Lincoln a 1-0 advantage. After surviving a Columbia Union barrage of shots, Francis doubled Lincoln’s advantage in the 63rd minute. Francis leads Lincoln with a team-high six goals
The Pioneers finally broke through in the 79th minute when Idrissa Sesay scored.
Lincoln immediately responded as McNeill scored 33 seconds later to give Lincoln its two-goal edge again. McNeill became the seventh different Lincoln player to score a goal this season.
“Joseph (Forde) was on the right side taking the ball down,” McNeill said. “I noticed that everyone was looking at Joseph and nobody was paying a lot of attention to me. So I knew I had to make a play if the ball was crossed to me.”
The defense of Jerrell Hooker, Jarek Harris, Dominic Mensah, Kirk Bishop and Earvin Noel made several key clears late in the match to help the Lions preserve the victory. Rahsaan Lisimba made some strong plays in the middle of the field to help the Pioneers off-balanced.
Columbia Union had several quality scoring chances early in the second half, but Wilkinson came up huge and the Lions harassed the Pioneers just enough to force errant shots.
After struggling to get victories over the last two years and opening the season with a tough loss to East Stroudsburg, the Lions have bounced back nicely under first year coach Z. Joseph Jallah
“Everything is different about the team,” McNeill said. “We are more of a family this year. It is a lot more fun to play now.”
Lincoln returns to action next Sunday afternoon when it visits Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, NY for a 2:00 p.m. start.