Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Lone goal lands WCU in PSAC semifinals
EAST BRADFORD » If it’s possible to dominate a 1-0 soccer match, the West Chester University women did it Tuesday in the PSAC Quarterfinals.
The conference’s regular season winner for the second straight season, the top-ranked Golden Rams only scored one time against eighth-seeded Bloomsburg on a windy day at Rockwell Field. But WCU’s defense never allowed the visiting Huskies to even get a sniff of a chance to score.
“We were having trouble finding the back of the net, but I think we controlled the majority of the game,” said senior defender Kaitlyn McNamara.
“When you have multiple chances like that, sometimes it works against you,” added WCU head coach Betty Ann Kempf Townsley. “Your opponent may get one opportunity and score. But we’ve been playing like this all season long, where we keep creating and keep pressure on the opposing defense. We hope at some point we can break can break them down.”
It finally happened nearly 76 minutes into the contest, but West Chester (15-2-1 overall) seemed to be in control for large swathes of the action. Ranked 21st nationally, the Rams advance to the semifinals on Thursday at 11 a.m. and will host fourth-ranked Gannon. If WCU wins, it will host the finals on Saturday.
“There is so much parity in the league right now, so any given day any team can beat anybody,” Kempf Townsley said.
“We’ve grown so much as a team this season,” added junior forward Linzi Wolfe, who scored the only goal. “We have great team chemistry and every game we get better.
“We have to come out even stronger on Thursday and play our hearts out.”
What was eventually the game-winner came with just over 14 minutes left in regulation, and it culminated a period of intense pressure by the West Chester attack. Wolfe replaced sophomore Madison Baxter (Downingtown East), who was hit in the face about 10 minutes into the second half. McNamara delivered a perfect crossing pass from and Wolfe headed it in just inside the far post.
“It was an amazing cross. My head was right next to the post,” Wolfe said.
“The timing of the whole sequence was terrific,” Kempf Townsley added.
“We had been talking to Linzi a lot about timing her runs with diagonal balls. Linzi did a great job coming off the bench for Baxter when she got hurt and it was right time, right place. It was a beautiful goal.”
The Rams had a few other quality second half chances, including a header by Tayler Jamison off a corner that was turned aside by diving BU goaltender Jenna Hawkins. And Wolfe nearly had another after it was 1-0, but her shot was actually booted away by a defender.
“We had a lot of opportunities and we struggled a bit to capitalize, but I could feel it coming,” Wolfe said.
“The first 30 minutes we were in control, but the last 15 minutes of the first half, we started to play down to (Bloomsburg’s) level a little bit,” McNamara explained. “In the second half we came out with a lot of energy.”
McNamara and the rest of the defense clamped down on Bloomsburg (96-3 overall). West Chester keeper, McKenna Mullin, didn’t make her first save until the 59 minute mark, and it wound up being her only save of the afternoon.
“Our defense is good. Our back line consists of juniors and seniors and we all know how to play together,” McNamara said.
The Rams have now won 10 in a row, and have surrendered just four goals in that span. In fact, WCU has allowed more than one goal just once all season.
“(The defense) is just solid,” Kempf Townsley said. “Collectively, they know how to work well with one another, and individually they are strong.”
West Chester had the edge in corners (12-2) and shots (9-2), but won by the narrowest of margins. And on Thursday, it could be more of the same as the Rams nipped Gannon, 1-0, in a regular season meeting on Oct. 13th.
“You can get frustrated when you’re not taking advantage of scoring opportunities, especially on the sidelines watching,” Kempf Townsley pointed out. “If you are a player in the game, you can control things. We just hope that at some point, one of the players will step up.”
West Chester has won the PSAC Tournament four times, with the last coming in 2010. The Rams lost to East Stroudsburg on penalty kicks a year ago.
“It’s going to come down to who really wants it,” McNamara said.