Box Score
BLOOMSBURG – Bloomsburg answered East Stroudsburg University's game-tying goal with 6:17 remaining just over 30 seconds later and advanced to the PSAC Men's Soccer Tournament with a 2-1 win over the Warriors early Sunday evening in central Pennsylvania.
The game, postponed from Saturday due to significant snowfall, promised to send the winner to the PSAC Tournament as the No. 4 seed, while a tie would have sent Mercyhurst to the postseason after all of the scenarios on Saturday broke in favor of the Warriors and the Huskies.
After 44 scoreless minutes, Bloomsburg (7-8-1, 4-4-1) took a 1-0 lead with just 22 seconds left in the first half when Bryce Shaffer scored on a free kick from the end line taken by Fran Miller.
The Warriors (5-8-4, 3-4-2), last year's PSAC Tournament runner-up, worked throughout the second half to get the goal back, and finally found the net when a cross from junior
Kevin Lombardo was knocked in by a sliding
Nemanja Nikolic for his seventh goal of the season with less than seven minutes to play.
Just 35 seconds later, the Huskies got the go-ahead goal Nate Conrad, and ESU didn't manage another shot in the final 5:42 as the 2011 season drew to a close.
The Warriors had a 14-8 advantage in shots, Bloomsburg led 6-4 in corner kicks, ESU freshman goalkeeper
Sean Murphy had five saves and his counterpart Bernie Roell made six saves.
ESU nearly pulled off an improbable run to the tournament under first-year head coach
Rob Berkowitz, who drew the coaching assignment in his fifth season as the Warriors' women's coach after the retirement of Hall of Fame head coach
Jerry Sheska in May.
The Warriors were 1-6-1 overall, 0-3-1 in the PSAC, and in the midst of seven-game streak without a win for the first time since 1982 when they suffered a 3-0 loss at Lock Haven on Sept. 30.
The next day, they won 2-1 at Slippery Rock, then had a 3-1 win over then-No. 12 Mercyhurst and a 2-1 win at Gannon in the next week to get back to 3-3-1 in the conference. A seven-game unbeaten streak (4-0-3) from Oct. 1 to Oct. 21 included a 2-2 tie against Shippensburg and put ESU in position to play for a tournament spot this weekend.
The Warriors' final record of 5-8-4 is their first season under .500 since 1982, the first of Sheska's 29 years as head coach. This marks just the seventh time since 1982 that ESU did not qualify for the PSAC Men's Soccer Tournament, and the fifth time that neither Warriors soccer team qualified for postseason play – 1982, 1984, 2004, 2005 and 2011. Berkowitz led the women's team to the PSAC playoffs in 2009, the last time the men's team did not advance, and has made the tournament three times in five seasons as women's coach. The PSAC has sponsored women's soccer since 1994.
