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WEST CHESTER, Pa.- The West Chester men's soccer team (12-2-4) will have to wait one more night before it can do something it has not done since 2004-play for a PSAC Tournament Championship. West Chester picked up a thrilling 1-0 win over East Stroudsburg on Friday afternoon after Millersville (10-3-5) defeated Seton Hill 2-0 to setup a matchup with the Marauders with a PSAC Championship on the line.
West Chester got to this point after defeating PSAC Rival East Stroudsburg by a final score of 1-0 thanks to a late first half goal from senior
Kyle Hoops (Phoenixville, Pa./Great Valley). A day after being named PSAC Men's Soccer Defensive Player of the year and just hours after being named 2018 PSAC Men's Soccer Champion Scholar Hoops showed his offensive talents with a beautiful flying header off a flick pass from
Brett Miller (Washington Crossing, Pa./Council Rock North) to give the Golden Rams the decisive 1-0 lead. East Stroudsburg applied heavy pressure late but thanks to a series of great defensive plays from the West Chester backline and goalie
Will Marshall (North Versailles, Pa./East Allegheny) West Chester kept its guests off the scoreboard to pick up its first semifinal victory since 2004 and its first under back-to-back PSAC Men's Soccer Coach of the Year
Michael Benn.
Millersville enters this contest off an exciting win of its own as Millersville scored a pair of goals including one in the first half to defeat Seton Hill in the first semifinal of the day. Chase Flickinger scored first for Millersville off an assist from Ethan Woods in the 27
th minute to give the Marauders the early 1-0 lead. Millersville added an insurance goal in the 62
nd minute when Jaxson Burns scored off an assist from Flickinger to stretch the lead to 2-0 with just under 30 minutes left to play. A strong six save performance from goalie Darian McCauley combined with a strong defensive effort the Maraurder backline proved to be more then enough to hold off the ever dangerous Seton Hill offense. This victory gives the Maruarders the chance to play for the Championship for the ninth time in program history and the fifth time under head coach Steve Widdowson.
Flickinger has been dangerous for Millersville offensively this year as he leads the team in scoring with seven goals and six helpers for a total of 20 points on the year while teammate Burns sits in second with seven goals and three assists of his own. Jacob Gosselin is the next leader for Millersville with 12 points on the year as he has four goals and four assists on the season. Darian McCauley has seen the majority of time between the pipes for the Marauders as he has played to an 8-3-5 record with a 1.03 goals against average over the course of 1569 minutes of work in 2018. McCauely has registered five shutouts on the season while making 68 stops and allowing just 18 goals on the year. As a team Millersville has allowed opponents just over one goal per game on the season allowing an average of 1.06 goals per game while allowing opponents an average of slightly more than 10 shots per game on the year.
Defeating West Chester at home has been next to impossible this year as the Golden Rams have played to a record of 9-0-2 in home games and West Chester has gone 8-0 over the course of its last eight home contests. West Chester has also managed to outscore its opponents by a gaping 21-3 margin over the course of these eight consecutive wins. West Chester has also not lost to Millersville since the 2015 season when the Golden Rams lost by a final score of 3-0.
West Chester and Millersville have met once already this season back in the beginning of the month of October with West Chester winning this matchup 2-1 thanks to a late goal from PSAC First-Team Selection and leading scorer
Doug Goitia (Mount Pocono, Pa./Pocono Mountain East). Nathan Maynard used an assist from Chase Flickinger to give the hosts an early 1-0 lead in this matchup but West Chester remained undeterred as the Golden Rams battled back scoring twice in the final 12 minutes to grab the road victory. In the 78
th minute,
Colin Muller (Bethlehem, Pa./Freedom) used an assist from Miller to even the score at 1-1 to give West Chester a chance late. Goitia showed a flair for the dramatic as he scored the game-winner with just seconds to play in regulation to lift West Chester to a thrilling 2-1 victory over its hosts to open the month of October. West Chester will surely be looking to duplicate this result on Sunday afternoon as the team chases a PSAC Conference Title and the potential of a top-two seed in the Atlantic Region, which would give West Chester the chance to host the second round of the NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament.
