Sept. 28, 2009

EASTON, Pa. - It was well worth the 109-plus minutes of soccer it took Lafayette to pick up its first league win of the season. The 1-0, double-overtime win was due in large part to the efforts of goalie Philip Nelson, whose performance earned him Patriot League Goalie of the Week honors for the sixth time in his career.

The senior played all 109:16 minutes on Saturday and picked up his fifth shutout of the fall, which leads the Patriot League. He finished the game with four saves, three of which came in the first half, to help give the Leopards the league-opening victory on the road.

So far this season, Nelson has started all eight games and played all but nine minutes of those eight matches. He boasts a league-leading 0.84 goals-against average to go along with an .821 save percentage. Only seven goals have gotten by him this season and his five shutouts give him 13 for his career, seventh all-time in Lafayette history.

A Mechanical Engineering major and one of four Engineering majors on the team, Nelson's fall course schedule consists entirely of engineering classes, including Control Systems and Heat Transfer. He is also taking Senior Design Project I.

The Leopards host Villanova on Wednesday at 7 p.m. before archrival Lehigh comes to Easton on Saturday night for a Patriot League match-up. Saturday's start time is also at 7 p.m.