ALFRED, N.Y. – The Penn State Altoona men's soccer team opened its Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference schedule with a loss on Saturday afternoon, as the Lions suffered a 4-2 defeat at the hands of conference foe Alfred State College at Pioneer Stadium.

Alfred State (5-3-2, 1-0 AMCC) got goals from four different players, as the Pioneers overcame an early two-goal deficit to hand Penn State Altoona (2-5, 0-1 AMCC) the loss.

Henry Couchara (Plymouth Meeting, PA/Plymouth Whitemarsh) and Owen Myers (Spring Grove, PA/Spring Grove) scored goals for the Lions. Alexander Ferry (Warren, PA/Warren) made his sixth start at goalkeeper for Penn State Altoona and recorded 10 stops.

It took Penn State Altoona less than five minutes to get on the board first. Cameron McCarthy (Bloomsburg, PA/Bloomsburg) sent a corner kick in front of the goal, and the ball found Couchara, who deflected it into the net at 4:34. The goal was Couchara's first of his collegiate career.

The Lions doubled their lead just over 15 minutes later, when they capitalized on an Alfred State foul. Following the foul near the left sideline, Myers fired the ensuing free kick overtop the goalkeeper from long range, increasing Penn State Altoona's advantage to 2-0 at the 20:09 mark with his first goal of the season.

Alfred State quickly responded by scoring two goals over the next 6:09 to knot the score. Andres Mateos provided the first goal of the game for the Pioneers at 22:02, and Nuri Sarbudak evened the score at 2-2 with his tally at 26:18.

The 2-2 score held up until the latter stages of the second half, when Alfred State broke through for the go-ahead goal. After a quick pass into the box, Kristian Annibali sent a shot past the diving keeper and into the bottom right corner of the goal to give the Pioneers a 3-2 advantage at 73:45.

The home team added a late insurance goal to its total, when a pass from the right side came to Brogan Cotter in the box. Cotter kicked a shot past the keeper at 86:56, making it 4-2.

Luke Hall (State College, PA/State College) had a team-high two shots on goal for Penn State Altoona, while Couchara, Myers, and Ethan Firth (York, PA/Central York) each finished with one shot on goal.

Penn State Altoona men's soccer continues AMCC play on the road next weekend, when the Lions travel to Hamburg, N.Y. to take on Hilbert College at 1:00 p.m.