COLLEGEVILLE, PA. – The Ursinus College men's soccer team used two second half goals to overcome a back-and-forth first half, defeating Albright College 2-0 from Patterson Field on Tuesday evening.

First-year Colin Deal netted the tie breaker in the 55^th minute and senior Marco Grenda added an insurance goal in 89^th minute to give the Bears the 2-0 victory.
With the win, the Bears improved to 1-1-1 on the season, while the Lions of the MAC Commonwealth fall to 1-1 on the campaign.

Each team opened the first half trading corner kick opportunities over the first five minutes, neither resulting on a shot on goal. Sophomore defensemen Jack Schmidt had the first chance to break the tie in the 8^th minute, but his shot just climbed above the crossbar. Albright's Luigi Costigliola followed up in the 11^th minute with a shot of his own, but the Lions first shot also sizzled too high for a chance to break the score.

In the 36^th minute, sophomore Joshua Coster and first-year Landon Shivak each traded shots after a corner kick, but the Lions defense prevailed to keep the score tied heading into halftime.

At halftime, Ursinus held a slight advantage in shots 6-4 while the Lions held a 7-3 edge in corner kicks. In the 55^th minute, after a blocked shot from the Bears defense a counterattack ensued as Shivak played a beautiful through ball to Grenda up the right half of the field. Grenda played a ball back in front of the net finding Deal for an easy one on one opportunity.

The Bears continued the offensive pressure over the next few possessions as Shivak and Harry Lorenc each fired shots in the 57^th minute. The pressure on the offensive end finally paid off for the Bears. In the 90^th minute, the ball found Grenda and after making a defender miss, he fired a right-footed shot to the top shelf of the goal to make the score 2-0.

Ursinus finished with a 19-9 advantage in shots while Albright held a slight edge in corner kicks 8-6. A physical match throughout the night saw seven yellow cards issued as the Lions finished with four total. Senior goalkeeper Peter Schoenberg earned his first career shutout in net while earning three saves. Albright's netminder Cooper Walters was credited with two saves on the evening.

"We played two different halves today," Head Coach Daniel Clitnovici said. "A first half where we were unable to keep the ball and create goal scoring opportunities and a second half that we stepped up the tempo and created a free-flowing attack repeatedly. Credit to Albright they came in and had a game plan and executed it. Overall, I'm satisfied with the performance in the second half, that's the level of play we need and want to be at."

The Bears will return to action on Friday, September 9^th as they host Neumann University from Patterson Field at 7:30 PM.