HORSHAM, Pa. – The Penn State Abington men's soccer team recorded its first victory of the season with a 5-1 win over SUNY Cobleskill in a conference matchup Sunday afternoon.
With both teams showing fatigue from playing a double overtime contest the day before as SUNY Cobleskill is coming off a 2-1 win over Bryn Athyn College and Abington coming off a scoreless draw with SUNYIT, both teams were vying for a chance to improve their standings in the conference.

The Fighting Tigers got on the board early in the 13^th minute when Dan Rucinski squeezed through a pair of Blue and White defenders before pulling the trigger in front of the box, only to watch the ball skim off the Abington goalkeeper's fingers as Dan Saint-Pol (Perkasie, Pa.) scrambled to keep the ball from crossing over the goal line but was a tad bit late as the referees signaled the first goal of the game for the Orange and Black.

Abington regrouped early on, knowing that the game is still early and after six minutes have gone by, the patience finally paid off when a scrum for the loose ball in front of the Cobleskill net landed onto the foot of freshman defender Andrew Costa (Philadelphia, Pa.), he would then drill the ball from the left side of the box and past the goalkeeper's hands into the top right corner of the goal to equalize the game.  

Five minutes later Abington cleared the ball out of its defensive end of the field and begun to build up its attack up the field as Alex Martins (Philadelphia, Pa.) was fouled hard on a late tackle from behind inside the box as the officials awarded a penalty kick for the Blue and White. Robert Ziegler (Norristown, Pa.) stepped up to take the PK, fooling the Cobleskill keeper Steve Seelman to go right as Ziegler directed the ball towards the left side of the net for his second goal of the season and Abington's first lead of the game.

Despite the 2-1 lead, the Blue and White knew that no lead was comfortable yet as Abington struck again late in the first half as Gustavo Alegria (Long Island, N.Y.) completed a long pass over to Joel Klapper (Doylestown, Pa.) near the top box as Klapper quickly recovered the ball, rolled around his defender and lobbed the ball over the charging Seelman at close range to watch the ball sail into the back of the net for the 3-1 lead before the break.

Abington continued to maintain possession of the ball majority of the second half, completing 21 shots in the stanza before senior forward Alex Martins (Philadelphia, Pa.) recorded his first goal of the year after he sped past his defender on the right wing and drilled the ball quickly into the right corner of the net before Seelman could react to give the Nittany Lions a comfortable 4-1 lead in the 57^th minute.

Martins would later tally his second goal of the game in the 77^th minute after he managed to find the ball loose in the middle of the scum in front of the Cobleskill net and tapped the ball into the back of the net as Abington jumps ahead with a 5-1 lead for its first win of the 2014 campaign.

With the win, Abington is now 1-0-2 in the conference and 1-3-3 on the year, while Cobleskill picked up its first loss in the NEAC and their third (3-3-0) of the year.
Looking ahead, the Nittany Lions will take few days off to recuperate before continuing conference play with a pair of road matchups in New York to take on Cazenovia College on Saturday followed by Morrisville State College on Sunday.