WEST CHESTER, Pa. – The East Stroudsburg University women's soccer team held a lead after nine minutes, but goals in the 45th and 82nd minute led No. 2 West Chester past the Warriors, 2-1, in the PSAC Tournament Quarterfinal round on Tuesday afternoon at Rockwell Field.
The Warriors close the 2022 season with a 9-7-3 record. The Golden Rams improve to 17-0-1 on the season and advance to the PSAC Semifinals with the win.
Rebecca Kotula registered the lone goal for the Warriors on a penalty kick in ninth minute of action. It was the ninth goal of the season for the Wyomissing native.
Notables
- Scoring goals for WCU was Maggie Lena and Faith Matter. While Kiley Kergides and Jacqueline Hug registered assists.
- Freshman goalkeeper played tremendous in goal for ESU, often preventing goal opportunities and finished with seven saves. The Frederick, Md. native closes the season with a 1.17 goals against average and a .802 save percentage. WCU counterpart Haley McGee made three saves.
- WCU led in shot (22-8)s, shots on goal (9-4) and corner kicks (7-3). After WCU led 15-1 on shots in the first half, both squads tallied seven second half shots.
- Along with Kotula's goal, Evencia Welsh, Mikayla Moats and Brienn Seaman were credited with shots on goal.
- Both teams played in the season-finale on Saturday, with ESU handing WCU its first non-winning result of the season with a 1-1 draw.
- West Chester, the second-ranked team in the country have outscored the opposition by a 46-6 margin on the season. ESU has recorded half of those goals and have led leads in two of the games.
How It Happened
- 9' | After a foul in the box, Rebecca Kotula got the penalty kick opportunity and delivered her ninth goal of the season. She shot the lower right corner, past the WCU goalkeeper, as ESU took the first lead.
- 45' | With WCU facing a deficit for over 30 minutes, the Golden Rams equalized the score off a free kick. Kiley Kergides sent the far free kick in front of the Warriors bench, that found the head of Maggie Lena, who sent the header into the net past Clarkson.
- 82' | Clarkson held possession and cleared it out of the zone, but West Chester's Jacqueline Hug was able to get a head on it to send back into the offensive zone. It was a race to the ball between Clarkson, a Warrior defender and Faith Matter, but unfortunately for ESU, Matter won the foot race. She was able to kick the ball away from Clarkson and maintain possession, before taking a shot that found the upper-right corner of the net.
Up Next
- ESU closes the season with 9-7-3 record.
- West Chester advances to the PSAC Semifinals and will play Mercyhurst, hosted by the highest-remaining seed in the PSAC West on Fri., Nov. 5. The winner of that matchup advances to the PSAC Championship.
