Box Score
WEST CHESTER, Pa. – Mike Pryor scored a career-high four goals as West Chester University hung on to claim the championship of the WCU Invitational Sunday at Farrell Stadium.
It took West Chester (2-0) an entire half to get going on a very hot and humid afternoon. However, the Golden Rams exploded for six goals in the final 45 minutes to take home the trophy of its own tournament.
Senior captain Mike Pryor netted four of the six tallies, two via penalty kicks, to pace the Rams’ comeback after the break.
Mercy’s Michael Frimpong-Manso potted the only goal of the first half on a penalty kick in the 31st minute to give the visitors a 1-0 lead heading into the locker rooms. He would finish with two goals on the afternoon.
Junior back J.J. DiFerdinando knotted the game on a header in the 56th minute, and Pryor followed off an assist from Paul Ballard just 75 seconds later that put West Chester in front, 2-1, and calmed down a team that was playing a little tight to that point.
“When we got those two goals so close together, I think we really settled down,” Rams head coach Kendall Walkes said.
Pryor completed a natural hat trick 10 minutes apart in the 62nd and 72nd minute with each tally coming on penalty kicks that gave WCU some breathing room, 4-1.
However, Mercy rallied with two goals less than two minutes apart while down a man after Lucan Brown was sent off with his second yellow card of the day in the 73rd minute.
“You always have to be on your toes, especially in our conference,” Pryor added. “These games will help us when we get into our conference schedule. Right now, we are looking at what we do, rather than what other teams are doing.
“We are still young, but I like the chemistry of this team.”
Frimpong-Manso and Keith Dillon made it a one-goal game, but West Chester answered right back when Ballard finished off a long run down the far sideline just 14 seconds after the Mavericks’ rally that broke the backs of the visitors.
Pryor knotched his fourth and final goal of the game in the last minute of the match when he tucked a shot into the far right corner past a diving Martin Walsh.
West Chester is off until Wednesday when it hosts Millersville in the PSAC East opener. The PSAC has split into two divisions in men’s soccer for the first time since 1992.
