BRONX – The Yeshiva University men's soccer team opened the 2022 season with a thrilling victory over Lehman College, 3-2, at the Lehman College South Field on Thursday evening. After falling behind, 1-0, Yeshiva scored three straight goals, all by junior Josh Ziarno, to give the Blue and White the lead for good.

"We played strong, trusted the coaches' plans, and thankfully the goals came along," Ziarno said after recording the hat trick to propel the Maccabees to the season-opening victory. "I'm grateful to be a part of this team."

Senior Nicolas Dlugach earned the victory in net for the Maccabees (1-0) by making six saves. Senior Demiraldo Grunasi stopped eight shots for the Lightning (0-1).

The victory marks the first for Tobias Esche as head coach of the YU men's soccer program. "We started out well and got adjusted to the grass field quickly," Esche said. "The team earned the win with maximum effort and playing together until the end."

Yeshiva outshot Lehman during the match, 15-13, and had the edge in shots that were on goal, 11-8. The Lightning had six corner kick opportunities as opposed to five for the Macs.

With the game scoreless in the early stages, Lehman had a golden opportunity to take the lead, but sophomore Alexander Agyemang's point-blank shot was turned aside by Dlugach, during the 11^th minute. However, over six minutes later, the Lightning would cash in on a scoring chance as senior Mohammad Jagne tallied the goal, assisted by rookie Malik Lashley, to give the home team a 1-0 advantage.

The Maccabees countered in the 31^st minute, as Ziarno found the loose ball off the foot of sophomore David Abittan and drilled it into the net to even the match at one goal apiece. Abittan earned the assist on the play. 

Throughout the remainder of the first half, Lehman had a couple of grade "A" chances to regain the advantage, but Dlugach and the Macs' defense prevented the ball from going into the net. Both teams went into the intermission tied at one.

Just over two minutes into the second half, Ziarno capitalized on YU's first golden opportunity of the stanza by taking the feed from sophomore Gabe Einhorn and burying the ball into the back of the cage to give Yeshiva its first lead of the evening, 2-1. It was Ziarno's second goal of the contest and the first point of Einhorn's collegiate career.

In the 75^th minute, Dlugach dove to his left and denied freshman Adam Kowalski's shot from going into the right side of the net. Right after that, Yeshiva quickly guided the ball down the field, and less than a minute later, Ziarno shot the ball from inside the box that was denied, but junior Lucas Baredes secured the rebound and gave it back to Ziarno, who tipped the ball into the net for his third goal of the evening which extended the Maccabees' advantage to 3-1. Baredes was credited with his first point of the young season thanks to the assist. 

Lehman was not done yet, as Mohammed tallied his second goal of the night to pull the Lightning to within one goal with 1:30 left to play in the match. Senior Demetrios Argyros was credited with the assist.

Yeshiva's defense buckled down during the final 89 seconds, not allowing Lehman to have another scoring chance for the remainder of the contest. The Maccabees went on to earn the hard-fought victory, 3-2.

"The performance was a good start to the process," Esche said. "We are looking forward for the next game."

Yeshiva will open both the conference and home portions of its schedule on Sunday evening, as YU hosts Sarah Lawrence College at Votee Park. The Skyline contest is scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m.