No. 13 West Chester Stifles Slippery Rock In Second Half Of 12-6 Win

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Tatum Altman (North Brunswick, N.J./North Brunswick) scored four goals while both Maggie Stella (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks East) and Alex Wendig (West Chester, Pa./Bishop Shanahan) added hat tricks to lead No. 13 West Chester to a 12-6 victory over Slippery Rock Saturday.
 
West Chester (6-0, 1-0 PSAC) opened conference play with a win and remains undefeated following one of the most dominant second halves in a long time. The Golden Rams won all 10 draw controls, held Slippery Rock (4-1, 0-1) to just five shots, forced 15 turnovers and rode The Rock to just 8-for-15 on clear attempts in the final 30 minutes.
 
Conversely, the Golden Rams took 22 shots, turned the ball over just nine times and out ground-balled The Rock while outscoring them, 7-2, to walk away with the win.
 
West Chester fell behind early, 3-0, but head coach Ginny Martino made a change in goal seven minutes into the contest, and the rest of the game belonged to the Golden Rams.
 
Altman, Stella and Kasey Kelly (Windsor, N.J./Notre Dame) each scored within a five-minute span, following Slippery Rock's three-goal run, to even the contest. The Rock briefly took a 4-3 lead. However, West Chester responded with a five-goal run that wrapped around halftime to take control for good, opening up an 8-4 advantage with 19 minutes to play. Stella and Altman each netted a pair of goals in that decisive run.
 
The Rock scored back-to-back tallies to pull within a pair. But, Wendig was strong off the bench and down the stretch, potting all three of her goals in the final nine minutes as the Golden Rams ended the tilt on a four-goal run.
 
Julianne Clemens (Springfield, Pa./Springfield-DELCO) (3-0) picked up her third win in a row in relief of Nicole Martins (Bethlehem, Pa./Saucon Valley). Clemens made five saves and allowed just three goals over 53 minutes of action.
 
Slippery Rock goalkeeper Emily Bitka (4-1) made 24 saves in goal for the hosts, who were outshot 44-16 in the contest.
 
West Chester's final contest of this four-game road swing takes place Tuesday evening at Kutztown University at 7 p.m.