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EAST STROUDSBURG – East Stroudsburg University ripped off five straight goals to pull within 7-6 at halftime, but No. 6 West Chester pulled away in the second half to remain undefeated with a 16-9 win in PSAC East lacrosse in the Warriors' home finale on Wednesday afternoon at Whitenight Field.
ESU (10-6, 5-4) will play for the third spot in the conference playoffs on Saturday at Shippensburg (8-8, 5-4). Bloomsburg (11-5, 6-3) secured the No. 2 seed with a 14-7 win over Shippensburg on Wednesday afternoon, while West Chester (15-0, 9-0) is the top seed.
The Warriors won the first meeting with Shippensburg this season, 17-12, on April 3. The winner travels to Bloomsburg next Tuesday for the quarterfinal game between the PSAC East's No. 2 and No. 3 seeds.
Juniors
Molly O'Hara and
Jamie Wesztergom both scored three goals for ESU on Wednesday and junior
Michelle Mangiaruga had two goals and two assists.
Claire Grimwood scored four goals and Erin Oczkowski had a goal and five assists to lead West Chester, which extended an 11-8 lead with five goals in the final 11 minutes.
Mangiaruga put the Warriors on the board with a free position shot 16 seconds into the game before the Golden Rams rattled off seven straight goals in a run that included three goals by Grimwood and three assists by Oczkowski.
ESU got back in the game over the final 12 minutes of the first half. The first three goals came in a span of 1:02, as O'Hara scored, Mangiaruga found Bradley and Wesztergom scored her first goal to make it 7-4 with 10:19 left.
Wesztergom scored again with six minutes remaining and when O'Hara netted a pass from Mangiaruga with 4:46 left, the score was suddenly 7-6.
The Warriors kept West Chester off the board for nearly 20 minutes until Grimwood scored her fourth goal of the game with 26:20 on the clock in the second half. O'Hara made it a one-goal game on an assist from Wesztergom a minute later, but West Chester had a fast break goal from Nicole Pyle assisted by Oczkowski in the next minute and began to pull away.
Mangiaruga cut the deficit to 11-8 with 15 minutes left. After a scoreless five-minute stretch, Oczkowski scored her only goal to jump start the Golden Rams' closing five-goal run.
MacKenzie O'Keefe made nine saves for West Chester and sophomore
Amanda Simms had seven saves in goal for ESU. The Golden Rams held a 30-25 advantage in shots after posting a 49-20 margin in a 25-7 win on March 31.
The Warriors dominated the draw control game as they have for most of the season, winning nine of the 13 draws in each half for an 18-8 advantage. ESU has won 43 more draws than its opponents (237-194) this season and held an edge in 10 of the first 16 games.
O'Hara has 49 goals this season, one away from the sixth 50-goal campaign in school history. Mangiaruga pushed her season totals to 34 goals and 14 assists, Wesztergom and Bradley both have 25 goals and Bradley has a team-high 19 assists.
Saturday's game at Shippensburg begins at 1 p.m. as ESU looks for its second trip to the PSAC playoffs in three years and the sixth in school history (1985-86, 2000, 2005, 2008). Live stats will be available online through www.esuwarriors.com or www.shipraiders.com.
