The Muhlenberg men's soccer team scored once in each half and defeated Lebanon Valley, 2-0, for its first win of the season.

The victory came against a formidable Dutchmen squad that went 13-2-4 and was ranked as high as sixth in Division III last season. Lebanon Valley opened the 2024 campaign with a 1-0 win against 2023 national semifinalist Washington College and won its second game, 5-0. 

Keying the victory was senior Aidan Niggeman, who made his first career start in goal. Niggeman played only 23 minutes in parts of two games in his first three seasons but was equal to the task, recording 5 saves to earn the shutout. 

Niggeman's biggest save came in the 21st minute, when he dove to his right to stop a penalty kick taken by Lebanon Valley's All-American.

A little more than three minutes later, the Mules (1-1-1) broke into the scoring column for the first time this season on a play that involved half of the team's field players. After sophomore Sam Roberts won a ball, he passed ahead to sophomore Eric Armijos, who slipped through two Lebanon Valley players near the center line before passing up ahead to sophomore Gabe Blikshteyn, who back-heeled the ball to junior Sim Dorsey.

Dorsey, in turn, passed out wide on the left to junior Sebastian Tis, who took a touch in the box and fired the ball into the side netting for his second goal as a Mule.

Tis was involved, in an unusual way, in the second goal. He appeared to be offside on a long pass from junior Elie Khalil (pictured above) and took himself out of the play. But the assistant referee did not raise his flag, and Blikshteyn ran onto the loose ball and beat the Lebanon Valley goalie for his first career goal.