The West Chester University men’s soccer team concluded last weekend with a win and a loss, securing a fourth seed in the PSAC for a chance to continue their season.
The Golden Rams started the weekend home against the California University of Pennsylvania (5-10-1, 4-6-0 PSAC) Vulcans at Rockwell Field Friday afternoon. Although the game bled into overtime, the team pulled a victory, 3-2. The opening goal was taken by the Rams as Miguel Ross found teammate Giovanni Mowrey in front for a goal, putting West Chester up 1-0 just before halftime. California’s Kevin Helbig answered back with a header to tie it up just minutes into the second half.
The end of the matchup was one to keep the bleachers full. With under a minute to go in regulation and the teams knotted up at one, West Chester’s Alex Caplan scored with 39 seconds remaining to give the Golden Rams a 2-1 lead. California rapidly bounced thereafter as Jeffery Kyei tied the game with two seconds remaining, sending the game into overtime. Fighting relentlessly, Brett Glasco scored the game-winning goal in the 100th minute, allowing West Chester to tack on another victory.
The West Chester defense did a marvelous job Friday and foreshadowed the hard work that has been spent during each practice of the season. Matt Palmer played the entire game in goal, making two saves, including a breakaway attempt by Cal’s Kyei earlier in the second half to improve his personal record to 8-4 on the season. Cal’s Shane Donovan made five saves, while allowing three goals in the losing effort.
The Golden Rams returned to Rockwell Field Saturday for Senior Day to honor their four graduating seniors and closed the regular season against Slippery Rock University. Despite the cold rain that was brought upon the matchup, the team fought hard in hopes to end the 2014 season with a win.
The Golden Rams lost 3-0 against rival Slippery rock in the regular-season finale for both schools. Palmer had three saves and allowed three goals to finish with a personal record of 8-5 on the regular season. Slippery Rock’s Steven Donnelly recorded a hat-trick scoring all three goals in the game.
Despite the loss, West Chester celebrated its four seniors, David Green of Elkton, MD., Christian Benner of Tedford, Pa., Alex Katx of Pennington, N.J., and Tommy Ryan of Newtown Square, Pa. in their last regular season home game.
The Golden Rams (9-7-0, 7-4-0 PSAC) received the fourth seed as they head into the PSAC Tournament and will get a rematch with fifth seed Slippery Rock (11-6-0, 6-4-0 PSAC) in a first-round match up.
Mercyhurst and Bloomsburg ended up as the top two seeds and will both receive first-round bye in the conference tournament. No.3 seed Seton Hill will take on sixth-seeded California (Pa.) to round out the conference playoffs.
West Chester will need to play a tighter, cleaner match up than they did on Saturday if they want their season to continue past the opening round of the PSAC tournament. When the Golden Rams play their best soccer it is hard for teams to match up well against them. But they are a young team who is still finding themselves. The seniors will need to make sure the team is ready for the game.
The rematch for the Golden Rams will take place this Tuesday at West Chester’s Rockwell Field. They will be playing at 1:30 p.m.and the squad will anxiously prepare to avenge their Saturday shut out and up their hardworking season.
Gianna Seeney is a third-year student majoring in communications with a minor in journalism. She can be reached at GS789405@wcupa.edu