Men's Soccer Preps for NCAA Tournament Opener

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WEST CHESTER, Pa.- For the second year in a row the road to Division II Men's Soccer National Championship will run through West Chester as the West Chester University men's soccer team (12-2-5, 7-1-3 PSAC) was named the second seed in the Atlantic Region by the selection committee on Monday night. The No. 2 seed will set up a second round matchup with MEC foe Notre Dame College (OH) (14-3-1, 11-3-0 MEC) on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. West Chester and Notre Dame will make history on Saturday afternoon as this is believed to be the first ever meeting between the two teams.

Tickets for adults will be $ 7 while students with ID and senior tickets will be $ 3 and tickets for children ages 2-12 with be $ 1 with children under two being admitted for free with a paying adult. Fans are reminded that parking for the games will be located in Q Lot, which is located across South New Street from the field while the lot immediately adjacent to the field will be reserved for those with handicap tags and VIPs. The first 100 West Chester Students to the game will be free with a valid, current WCU ID.

West Chester enters the Tournament after going 1-0-1 in the PSAC Tournament defeating East Stroudsburg in the PSAC Semifinals before playing to a 1-1 draw with Millersville in the PSAC Championship game. These results combined with just two losses both of which came in the month of September enabled West Chester to capture the No. 2 seed for the second year in a row. As the second seed last year West Chester picked up its first NCAA Tournament win as a Division II school and its first win in 50 years when West Chester defeated East Stroudsburg 2-1 in overtime. This victory allowed West Chester to advance to its first Atlantic Regional Title game it also marked the first-time in school history that both West Chester Soccer teams played for an Atlantic Regional Title game. Last years Regional Championship game was against eventual National Champion University of Charleston (Wv.) who won by a final score of 3-0 to put an end to the Golden Rams historic 2017 season.

All-PSAC selections Doug Goitia (Mount Pocono, Pa./Pocono Mountain East) and Jason Pixley (Philadelphia, Pa./Central) have been the offensive leaders for West Chester in 2018 as they are tied atop the leaderboard with 15 points as Goitia has six goals and three assists while Pixley has seven goals and one assist. Pixley also leads the team in game-winning goals for the second year in a row as he has five game-winners after registering four game-winners in 2017. Sophomore Stephen Thompson (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) is another viable option for West Chester as he is currently third on the team in points with 10 thanks to three goals and four assists on the year. 2018 PSAC Defensive Player of the Year Kyle Hoops (Phoenixville, Pa./Great Valley) is also an offensive weapon for West Chester as he is just two points behind Thompson with eight points on the year courtesy of four goals with three of these goals becoming game-winners. Perhaps the biggest goal of the year for Hoops came via a flying header in the PSAC Semifinals against East Stroudsburg as he scored the only goal of the game to send West Chester through to its first PSAC Championship game since 2004.

Defense has also been a point of pride for West Chester in 2018 as the Golden Rams had three members of their defense earn All-PSAC accolades as Hoops earned PSAC Defensive Player of the Year honors in conjunction with First Team All-PSAC honors while Sami Phelps (Yardley, Pa./Westtown School) also captured First Team All-PSAC honors. Starting goalie Will Marshall (North Versailles, Pa./East Allegheny) also found his way onto the Second Team after playing to an impressive 11-1-4 record with nine total shutouts (seven solo/two combined) and a miserly 0.65 goals against average. Marshall currently leads the PSAC in goals against average and shutouts while he sits second in the conference with an .831 save percentage. As a team West Chester has held opponents to just a 0.63 goals against average and just 9.3 shots per game with less than half of these shots finding their way on target.

West Chester has also been hard to defeat at home this year as the Golden Rams have played to a record of 9-0-3 at home in 2018. West Chester is also 10-1-3 in games where the Golden Rams score first and they are 8-2-1 when scoring in the first half. Additionally, West Chester has yet to allow an opponent than two goals in a game as the Golden Rams defense has been stout all season long. This stout defense will be put to the test on Saturday afternoon as a very dangerous Notre Dame College (OH) team comes to town looking to pull an upset.

Notre Dame has had a great year as the Falcons have gone 14-3-1 overall while going 11-3-0 through the rigorous Mountain East Conference. The Falcons have had their share of success against PSAC Foes in 2018 as they vanquished a pair of PSAC teams in Gannon and Mercyhurst to open the season outscoring these two opponents by a gaping 6-0 margin. Arthur Favero has been the offensive leader for Notre Dame this season with 30 points thanks to 11 goals and eight assists.  Nicholas Felician is second on the team in scoring with seven goals and five assists for a total of 19 points on the year. Guilherme Gloria and David Torralba have been the other options for Notre Dame this season as they have 17 points and 12 points, respectively. Gloria has scored eight goals on the year while assisting on one while Torralba has scored five goals of his own with a pair of assists.

Notre Dame has also been stout defensively, as the Falcons allow opponents an average of just 0.61 goals per game 7.5 shots per contest on the year. Daniele De Angelis has been the goalkeeper for the Falcons this season playing all 1663:39 minutes with a record of 14-3-1 and his 0.60 goals against average while also recording 12 shutouts along the way.

The winner of this contest will advance to take on the winner of No.1 Charleston vs No.4 Millersville next week at a location yet to be determined.