WEST CHESTER, Pa.- In need of a victory to improve its PSAC Tournament chances, the West Chester men's soccer team (8-4-2, 5-2-2) returned home for the first time since September 24
th to take on Shippensburg (4-6-3, 0-6-3). West Chester scored a pair of goals just before the 15
th minute of the match to take a two-goal lead, which the Golden Rams would never relinquish en route to a convincing 5-1 win over Shippensburg.
"This was a very important win for us," opened head coach
Michael Benn. "We've obviously had a tough stretch lately and really haven't been home in almost three-and-a-half weeks along with a 10-day break in the middle of that due to some schedule quirks, so this win was big for us. The heavy road stretch and break might have gotten us a little off rhythm so we needed this result. I'm generally happy with the performance, we recognized some of the recent mistakes we've been making and are working to correct those and today was a really good first step toward that.
Shippensburg applied early pressure to open the game, taking three shots with a pair of corners in a two-minute span around the 11
th minute but the West Chester defense stood tall, keeping the game scoreless.
In the 13
th minute,
Phil Udo-Inyang (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) opened the scoring with his first-career goal off an assist from
Brandon Duke (Royersford, Pa./Spring Ford) to give West Chester an early lead.
"I looked upper and saw Duke on the left side and as soon as we made eye contact I knew he'd get that ball across," opened Udo-Inyang, when asked about his goal. "We've been working hard on that all practice, getting the ball across, and getting in the right position and I was able to get the goal, so certainly very happy about that."
The Golden Rams doubled the lead moments later when
Frankie Taylor (Delran, N.J./Delran) took a perfectly placed through-ball from
Dillon Barbieri (Souderton, Pa./Souderton) to make it a two-goal lead.
"The early lead didn't make us play any differently necessarily but we were able to play with some more composure and take some of the anxiety away," noted Benn. "Once you get those two goals you have a cushion and can be a little more aggressive, it's been a while since we held a lead like so that, so I do think both goals were important to give us self belief and confidence back and pushed us to a good first-half."
Andrew Markopoulos (Drexel Hill, Pa./Msgr. Bonner & Prendie) further extended the lead in the 29
th minute, burying a loose ball in the box to put West Chester out in front 3-0.
Late in the first half, West Chester scored again when
Craig Potts (Stewartstown, Pa./Kennard Dale) finished a long free kick from
Landon Wenger (Gilbertsville, Pa./Boyertown) to give the Purple and Gold a commanding 4-0 lead heading into the halftime break.
In the 65
th minute,
Shane Hartey (Runnemede, N.J./Triton Hall) added the fifth and final Golden Ram goal of the game off an assist from
Jason Goldfeder (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cedar Cliff) to give WCU a commanding 5-0 lead.
Shippensburg did manage to get one back, scoring a goal of its own in the 69
th minute, when Seth Crabbe finished off an assist from Harry Kershaw, but this was as close as the Raiders would get as WCU rolled to the 5-1 home victory.
West Chester ended the game with a 19-8 advantage in shots and an 11-4 lead in shots on goal while also finishing the contest with a 7-5 lead in corner kicks.
Daniel Good (Exton, Pa./Downingtown East) made three saves in his 80-plus minutes of work before exiting in favor of
Aiden Sommers (Blackwood, N.J./Triton Regional) who entered for the final nine minutes of the contest and did not have to make a save to preserve the victory. For Shippensburg, freshman Matt Riley had a busy day in goal, making six big saves to slow the dangerous Golden Ram offense.
With a big game ahead on Saturday vs PSAC East leading Bloomsburg, coach Benn said, "Bloomsburg is having a great year, playing with a lot belief, energy, and effort. We had a great, tough game up there against them a month ago, and we were able to comeback and win, which I'm sure they are not really happy about, so I expect them to come in trying to prove a point and get crucial points in the race for the PSAC East. It's going to be a huge game for us and its very important for us to have the right mentality heading into it on Saturday afternoon," explained the Golden Rams 10
th-year mentor.
Up Next:
West Chester returns to action on Saturday afternoon against Bloomsburg beginning at 12 p.m. on Rockwell Field on what is also senior day for the Golden Rams.
