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Friday
11 a.m. #1 West Chester vs #4 ESU  |  Live Stats  |  Live Video
1:30 p.m. #2 Gannon vs #3 Millersville

Sunday
1 p.m. PSAC championship game

More: Updated ESU notes below for semifinals


EAST STROUDSBURG – East Stroudsburg University's first three shots on goal found the back of the net, and the Warrior defense earned its seventh clean sheet of the season in a 3-0 PSAC first round win over Mercyhurst on Tuesday afternoon.

Fourth-seeded ESU (13-3-1) advances to face top-seeded West Chester in the semifinal round at 11 a.m. on Friday. The Golden Rams will host both semifinals and Sunday's championship game.

Senior back Keelby Espinola, junior forward Eddy Enowbi and sophomore forward Marcus Torgersson netted the goals for the Warriors, while junior midfielder Jo Panuccio and senior midfielder Christian Bukowski added assists. Junior Will Boerema made three saves in goal to seal his 10th career individual shutout.

ESU has won seven games in a row for the first time since the 2007 PSAC championship-winning team won 12 straight.

Shots were 2-1 in favor of Mercyhurst (12-6) during an uneventful opening 30 minutes. Junior midfielder Brandon Levano had the first strong scoring chance of the game when he blasted a shot off the crossbar in the 35th minute.

Six minutes after that chance, the Warriors were on the board, as Espinola headed a Panuccio free kick past Laker goalkeeper Martin Jarc to break the deadlock. Espinola, who made his 67th consecutive start on Tuesday, now has three goals this year and five overall in his ESU career.

Enowbi doubled the advantage 30 seconds into the second half after his shot bounced off Jarc and found its way beyond the goal line. Enowbi leads the team in both goals (9) and points (20), and he now has six goals in the Warriors' last seven games.

ESU's final marker came in the 56th minute, as Bukowski made a run down the left side and crossed to a wide open Torgersson for a tap-in in front. Bukowski has two goals and five assists in the last six games, while Torgersson registered his second goal of 2017.

The Warriors nearly added a fourth goal 10 minutes later, but back-to-back diving stops by Jarc on Enowbi and Torgersson kept the score at 3-0. Boerema only needed to make one save in the second half to preserve the shutout.

ESU now moves on to face a West Chester team which has won eight straight games and went 13-2-1 (11-0 PSAC) during the regular season. The Golden Rams earned a 2-0 victory when the two teams met at West Chester on Sept. 12.

No. 2 seed Gannon will face No. 3 Millersville in the second semifinal at 1:30 p.m. on Friday.

Notes for Friday:

ESU leads 44-34-14 overall in a series with West Chester that dates back to 1927. This will be the seventh career postseason meeting between the two teams, and the first since the Warriors topped the Golden Rams 1-0 in the 2007 PSAC semifinals.

West Chester finished atop the PSAC regular season standings for the first time in program history; the Golden Rams have never won a conference title in men's soccer. Sr. GK Matt Palmer ranks fifth in Division II in goals-against average (0.49), ninth in shutouts (8) and 29th in save percentage (.811); he leads the PSAC in all three of those categories. 

Similar to the Warriors, the Golden Rams rely on a balanced offensive attack, with 16 different players scoring at least one goal and 18 registering at least one point. Doug Goitia (5 G), Brett Glasco (4 G, 2 A) and Jason Pixley (4 G, 2 A) are tied for the team lead with 10 points.

The two teams have combined to allow only 26 goals across 33 games. West Chester has shutout opponents nine times, including each of its past three contests, and ESU has seven shutouts in 17 games.

West Chester's two losses this season came to Georgian Court (4-3, Sept. 3) and UDC (1-0, Sept. 27).

Four ESU players have started all 17 games this season: Enowbi, Espinola, Levano and Boerema.