Last Wednesday the Golden Rams women’s soccer team played an away match against The Philadelphia University Rams, in a non-league match that ended with a 1-0 West Chester win.
The Golden Rams started on the attack early in the match by scoring the first goal within the first 56 seconds of play. Forward/midfielder Melissa McKeary scored the turnover goal unassisted and gained an early lead for the Golden Rams.
Most of the action that occurred within the first half was on the Golden Rams’ part, as they dominated the field in shots and corner kicks.
After McKeary’s goal, the Golden Rams proceeded to shut the Philadelphia Rams out by keeping play in their rival’s territory. There were a variety of shots after the first goal that either went wide or were blocked by the rival team’s defensemen. Despite these failed attempts to score, this was not stopping the golden rams from continuing to try to get a second goal in.
Despite the Golden Rams’ persistence to keep the ball in their opponents sector, the Philadelphia Rams were finally able to make a play in the Golden Rams’ goal area.
Trisha Sileo made the first Philadelphia Ram attempt at a goal at the 25th minute of play, but Golden Rams goalkeeper Shannon Fedyk was quick to shut down the Philadelphia Ram’s offense with a quick save.
Following this play the Golden Rams continued to attempt another goal. While they were unable to do this before half time, they were successful in keeping their opponents from scoring. For the majority of the first half, the only action the Philadelphia Rams were seeing was in terms of fouls. The Golden Rams occupied the field for the first half by out shooting Philadelphia Rams in shots by 7-2 and in corner kicks by 3-0.
When the second half began, the Golden Rams were again quick to react, with an early attempt on goal by McKeary that was blocked by Philadelphia Ram’s defense.
Learning their lesson from the first half, the Philadelphia Rams began to push back against the dominating Golden Rams defense with another shot on goal by Melissa Copeland. The shot went wide, and the Golden Rams were fast to retaliate with an attempt on goal, carried out by Jen Hutchinson. Philadelphia Rams keeper Kelli Kowalewski made the save and prevented the Golden Rams from scoring another goal.
In the second half of the match, the Philadelphia Rams were determined to score, as illustrated by a series of attempted shots on the Golden Ram’s goal. These shots were attempted by Copeland but were unsuccessful from either being too wide or blocked by the Golden Ram’s defense.
Following these attempts, the Golden Rams had three attempts on goal in a row, but were also unsuccessful.
The first of the three attempts occurred at the 76th minute of play. Cara Deola almost scored for a second time in the match, but rival keeper Kowalewski was there to stop the play with a save. The other two shots were not as close, as both of them went wide at the goalpost.
For the rest of the match, there was a constant struggle on the field for someone to score a goal. The Golden Rams were determined for another goal to shutout their opponents, whereas the Philadelphia Rams were desperate to get a goal past Fedyk so they could tie the match and have a better opportunity to win. Despite the willingness of both teams, neither team was able to score in the rest of the match, which granted the golden rams the shutout win 1-0.
While the Philadelphia Rams started to fight back against the Golden Rams, they were unable to get a better opportunity to score due to the Golden Ram’s persistence to be at their opponent’s goal.
The Golden Rams again out-shot the Philadelphia Rams in the second half by 7-4. This forced the Philadelphia Rams’ defense to be on top of things, as keeper Kowalewski stopped four goals as opposed to Fedyk’s two.
Following this match, the Golden Rams were supposed to play in their last conference game of the regular season before the quarterfinals last Saturday. Due to inclement weather the match had to be postponed. However, since the scheduled match was supposed to also be Senior Day where the team intended to honor their seniors, it was rescheduled for Sunday.
The games were not played in time to be included in this publication, but the score can found on The Quad’s Facebook page, Twitter, and the WCU Athletics website.
Following the rescheduled match, the Golden Rams will continue to prepare to duel the other eight teams competing in the PSAC conference quarterfinals. Since they are the sixth placed team, the
Golden Rams have their work cut out for them on their road to victory.
The PSAC quarterfinals begin Nov. 1, and the championships on Nov. 4 and 5.
Deanna Vasso is a fourth-year student majoring in English with a minor in creative writing. She can be reached at DV670502@wcupa.edu.
Scan this code with your phone to link to The Quad’s Facebook page.