The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's soccer team built a 3-0 lead and withstood a late charge to hold off Lock Haven University, 3-2, at Torne Valley Sports Complex. The Spartans are now unbeaten in their last three games (2-0-1) to improve to 4-5-3 on the season, with LHU dropping to 5-8-1.

Coming off a 2-1 victory over Caldwell on Tuesday, STAC returned to the Torne Valley field to host the squad from Pennsylvania, and the faithful had barely settled in when the Spartans got on the board. Daniel Darven sent a cross that was put past starting goalkeeper Brad Sumski by Brendan Flynn at 5:37 to put his team up by one.

After Sumski was replaced late in the half by Jonathan Howitt, St. Thomas Aquinas increased its lead to 2-0 when Flynn's long pass found Michael Wagner, who artfully popped a header over Howitt at 42:26. It also marked the third straight game that the Spartans led by a 2-0 score.

STAC increased the lead when Darven's second assist targeted Joe Connolly at 52:10. The affair was far from over as the Bald Eagles put home a pair of goals, both on rebounds of acrobatic saves by Spartan keeper Andrew Tartara. Trent Burris converted a rebound at 65:26 and Bobby Mohr scored just over five minutes later, and the visitors pushed frantically for the tying goal over the final 20 minutes.

In the end it was Tartara's five saves preserving STAC's second straight victory, as the Spartans outshot Lock Haven, 13-9. LHU's goalkeepers combined for four saves on the afternoon.

With just three games remaining in the regular season - all in East Coast Conference play - the Spartans next game is a showdown with University of District of Columbia, with kickoff slated for 2:30 pm at Eugene Levy Park.