No. 13 East Stroudsburg Stuns No. 5 West Chester, 16-14, In NCAA Quarterfinals

WEST CHESTER, Pa. – East Stroudsburg used another stellar second half and an outstanding performance from its goalkeeper to shock previously unbeaten and top-seeded West Chester, 16-14, in the NCAA Quarterfinal round and Atlantic Region championship Saturday evening at Vonnie Gros Field.
 
West Chester (19-1) saw its 19-game winning streak on the season come to a close, along with its 2018 campaign, while East Stroudsburg (15-3) advances to the national semifinals in Tampa, Fla., next Friday.
 
Leading 9-7 at the half of a game that moved up its start time 30 minutes to try to beat the approaching storms, West Chester was not ready for the storm that came early in the second half. East Stroudsburg scored six of the first seven goals of the final stanza to take a 13-10 advantage. One more run from the hosts thanks to a pair of extra-attacker tallies during an unreleasable penalty, tied the game at 13-all with 16:22 left. However, ESU answered with a three-goal run of its own to put the game away.
 
For the second straight day, the Warriors made adjustments at halftime and erased what was at one point a four-goal lead on Saturday. ESU came from five goals down on Friday to eventually beat Mercyhurst in the first round of the tournament.
 
"We came out kind of flat," West Chester head coach Ginny Martino said afterwards. "We never really seemed to get into our groove."
 
Much of the reason the Golden Rams could not find their groove was the play of ESU sophomore goalkeeper Tatyana Petteway, who made 16 saves in the win. She stymied many of West Chester's opportunities in the second half with many of the stops coming on free positions.
 
"She played really well," junior midfielder Maggie Stella (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks East) said about ESU's keeper. "I don't think we had quite the same shot placement as we typically do. But, that was because she came out on fire today."
 
Petteway kept the Warriors close in the first half when the Rams built its 6-2 lead early. Stella scored two of her team-high four goals during the early run.
 
Emily Schulze (Harleysville, Pa./North Penn) registered a hat trick for the Golden Rams while Tatum Altman (North Brunswick, N.J./North Brunswick), Tara Morrissey (Downingtown, Pa./Bishop Shanahan) and Sami Barnett (Glenolden, Pa./Interboro) each posted a pair of goals.
 
ESU's Chessie Rahmer paced the Warriors' attack with four goals of her own. Hana Ciccerelle scored three goals and assisted on four others. During East Stroudsburg's decisive 6-1 run to open the second half, Cicerelle contributed on four of the markers in one way or another.
 
WCU freshman goalkeeper Julianne Clemens (Springfield, Pa./Springfield-DELCO) was credited with six saves while suffering her first loss in the cage in her college career.