Following the West Chester men’s soccer 1-0 loss at home against New York Institute of Technology, circumstances certainly appeared very bleak. The Golden Rams had dropped six games in a row, saw their record plummet to 2-6 overall, and, even worse, held a 0-4 record in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC). To top the whole thing off, five of the losses had come via shutout.As cloudy as the forecast appeared for the team, some rays of optimism still shone through. WCU had been getting more chances and five of their losses came by only one goal. Players commented that the talent was readily available, they just needed to get on track and create more chances and then finish the job when the opportunity presented itself.
The team was able to do that, finishing with a 3-2 mark since October 3. Consecutive wins over non-conference foes, University of the District of Columbia (UDC), Holy Family University and Lincoln University, got things off on the right track.
The losses came in a home game against Shippensburg and a game at California (Pa.).
West Chester started their hot streak by defeating UDC 2-0 on a sunny, cool day in Farrell Stadium. Kevin McCann and Ricky Williamson both scored goals for the Rams, and Peter Weiss stopped all three shots he faced to notch the shutout.
McCann tallied in the 37th minute, launching a deep shot from outside the penalty area into the far upper-right side of the net to beat UDC goalkeeper Kyle Heatherington. McCann has been dangerous from the outside all season for the squad, and the goal was his second of the season.
Williamson added his goal in the 55th minute after controlling a pass from Kyle Miller and beating the goalie to the right.
WCU posted a great effort all around. They played tremendous defense while only allowing UDC five shots on goal. The offense was equally up to the task. They took 13 shots, and created many chances by putting 10 of those on net.
The Rams could finally exhale a sigh of relief after a big victory. “It definitely feels great to break a losing streak and finally get another win,” sophomore defender Taylor Eisenhauer said.
The win improved the team to 3-6 overall.
In their next tilt, West Chester jumped out to a big lead and never looked back, beating Holy Family 5-2 and extending their winning streak to a modest two games.
Williamson again led the charge for the Rams. He scored two goals less than three minutes apart in the first half, and assisted on the opening goal for the Rams on a pass to Zac Tassone only 14 minutes into the contest.
Miller scored the next goal only 1:22 after Tassone’s goal off an assist from Josh Labik. Next came Williamson’s two scores with Jake Maxwell collecting an assist. Finally, Conor Malarney assisted on a Nic Sakiewicz goal. It was Sakiewicz’s first career goal for WCU.
West Chester all but ended the game after the first half of play thanks to their 5-0 lead. Five of the Rams first six shots resulted in goals. By the end, they outshot their opponents 10-8.
“We were able to work the way we want to offensively and it resulted in plenty of goals,” Eisenhauer said.
Holy Family’s Richard Morawski and Patrick Pires each added a goal for the Tigers in the second half.
Kevin Marron got the start in goal for the Rams and made three saves in almost 83 minutes of action. Weiss came in to close out the final moments.
In the last of the team’s stretch of non-conference games, West Chester dismantled an overwhelmed Lincoln University team 7-0 to up their record to 5-6 and improve their winning streak to three.
Labik, Miller, Williamson and Malarney each scored in the first half to stake the Rams to an early lead. In the second half it was more of the same, as Maxwell, Tassone and Eisenhauer all notched goals.
Marron played the entire game for WCU and stopped three tries.
West Chester accumulated 32 shots in the game, and placed 21 of those on goal. Lincoln’s Andre Wilkinson made 14 saves in an effort to keep his team in the ballgame.
After the past three games it was perfectly acceptable for the Rams to be positive. The once anemic offense seemed a thing of the past heading into a PSAC home game versus a red-hot Shippensburg, who had won four in a row. A win would have gotten WCU back to .500 for the first time since Sept. 11.
“We were confident heading into the conference game since we were having a great deal of success scoring,” Eisenhauer said.
However, the PSAC has been a different situation for West Chester, as a 0-4 record with only two total goals demonstrated. The offense would have to keep rolling to get a victory.
They didn’t, as a 1-0 loss in Farrell Stadium halted the Rams’ momentum and dropped the team to 5-7 overall to remain winless in the PSAC.
Shippensburg’s Miles Harriger scored the lone goal of the contest in the 27th minute off a feed from Michael Celius.
“We actually had more chances than Shippensburg did in that game,” Eisenhauer said. “There were opportunities to score, but we just weren’t able to capitalize on them.”
WCU did, in fact, outshoot the visitors by a 13-6 margin. Shippensburg’s Clay Sale was perfect in goal, collecting seven saves and going the distance to record the shutout. Weiss also played all 90 minutes and made three saves.
“It’s tough to go from scoring lots of goals to being shut out. So far we aren’t able to put up many goals in conference play,” Eisenhauer said.
West Chester dropped a heartbreaker of 3-2 at California (Pa.) on a partly cloudy, blustery day.
Cal’s Mike Kalas scored the first goal off a corner from Spencer Crider only 3:41 into the game. West Chester’s Labik was able to tie up the game before halftime by deflecting a shot off a corner into the back of the net. Eisenhauer and Malarney received assists on the play.
In the second half, Cal’s Nemanja Visekruna scored on a penalty kick for his third goal of the season. Again, WCU equalized-Miller scored off a feed from Malarney in the 82nd minute.
The decisive goal came courtesy of Kalas, who scored his second off a deflection from a free kick. The goal happened just over a minute after Miller’s goal, and left WCU very little time for a comeback, which they could not mount.
Weiss made one save for the Rams, as only four of Cal’s 11 shots were placed on goal. Cal’s Derek Yobbi made five saves. WCU took nine shots and put seven on goal.
The loss dropped WCU to 5-8 and 0-6 in the PSAC.
West Chester plays Chestnut Hill in a non-conference home game on Oct. 19. Then they travel to Erie, Pa., for conference games against Mercyhurst and Gannon (at Edinboro) on Oct. 22 and 23, respectively.
Travis Pearson is a fourth-year student majoring in English. He can be reached at TP651537@wcupa.edu.