BLOOMSBURG, Pa.- Adriana Ryder (Hamilton, N.J./Steinert) scored the game-winning goal early in the second half to lift the sixth-ranked West Chester University women's soccer team (1-0-0, 1-0-0) to a 1-0 road win over Bloomsburg (0-1-0, 0-1-0) to open the season and PSAC East play on Saturday afternoon.

West Chester was originally slated to open its season on the road at Jefferson on Thursday afternoon, and the Golden Rams made the trip down 76 to meet the Rams in Philadelphia, but the game was eventually postponed due to heavy rains and lightning that blanketed the Philadelphia area on Thursday afternoon. With this postponement, West Chester played its first game of the season against a PSAC Eastern Division foe for the first time since 2021, when the Golden Rams played to a road (1-1) draw against Mansfield to get the campaign underway.

On Saturday afternoon in Bloomsburg, Bloomsburg ended the first half with a 5-4 lead in shots, but two saves by Grace Keen (Lincoln University, Pa./Avon Grove) were enough to keep the Husky offense off the scoreboard heading into the halftime break.

In the second half, it did not take long for West Chester to find the eventual game-winning goal, scoring just under four minutes into the second half when the defense forced a turnover in the midfield and Grace Trott (Fulton, Md./Mount De Sales Academy) sent a great pass in toward the box. A Bloomsburg defender managed to get her head on the ball, but it was not enough to make it change direction, which allowed Ryder to find her way onto the end of the pass and beat Izzy Hoffeditz for the go-ahead and eventual game-winning goal.

Keen was sharp in the second half, making three more saves, including her fifth and final stop of the day in the 82^nd minute in what proved to be the Huskies' final offensive push of the afternoon.
West Chester finished the game with a 13-12 lead in shots and a 5-2 lead in corners, although Bloomsburg finished the match with a slim 5-4 lead in shots on goal.

Despite the season-opening loss, Hoffeditz played well for Bloomsburg, making three saves on the afternoon to slow the potent Golden Ram offense.

Today's shutout victory is the 43^rd of Keen's career, which moves her into solo third all-time in career wins, and is also her 29th career shutout, which moves her into a tie for third all-time in shutouts, matching Ryan Levine's 29 from 2000-03.

Up Next

West Chester will be back in action on Tuesday night at East Stroudsburg beginning at 7 p.m. as the Golden Rams look to remain unbeaten in league action heading into their long-awaited home opener against Lackawanna on September 5.