Fun-loving WCU rebounds to beat Holy Family

After dropping its first regular season conference match in more than 24 months last weekend, West Chester men’s soccer coach Michael Benn noticed that his team was playing a bit tentatively. So for Thursday’s nonleague clash with visiting Holy Family, he addressed the issue.

And the Golden Rams apparently took it to heart. They went out and certainly appeared to have some fun en route to a 4-1 triumph over the Tigers at Rockwell Field.

“One of the things we talked about in pregame, especially coming off the loss to Bloomsburg, is that we’ve been a little uptight,” Benn explained. “I had to remind them that this game should be fun. We want them to enjoy playing.”

And nobody had more fun in the rain than forward Doug Goitia. The sophomore scored twice on Thursday to take over the team lead in that department, and has now notched five goals in the last three games after being held scoreless in the first six.

“It’s soccer. It’s a game. It’s supposed to be fun,” said Goitia.

It was also an enjoyable outing for fellow sophomore Stephen Thompson, who added his first career goal in addition to two assists. And even though Thompson didn’t have quite as much fun celebrating as Goitia, he acknowledged that WCU’s attack is at its best playing loose.

“We seem to play better when we are having fun,” he said. “We take it serious but in the end it’s a game we all love.”

The PSAC regular season champions in 2017, West Chester looks like it may be emerging from an early season crisis of confidence at the offensive end. In this season’s first six outings, the Rams managed just five goals. They’ve found the back of the net 10 times, however, in the last three appearances.

“I hope it’s starting to come around,” Benn said. “Scoring has been an issue for us this season. We’ve been working on it and trying different things.

“In our game, scoring goals is the hardest thing to do. And we’ve had some decent chances and have put ourselves into positions, but we haven’t had the final product. We want more goals, but it hasn’t been a massive concern because at least we have the chances. If we weren’t generating chances, we’d be more concerned.”

West Chester improves to 5-2-2 overall, and remains near the top of the PSAC standings at 2-1-1. Holy Family falls to 4-6.

“The previous two years have helped establish the standards of our program,” said Benn, who is in his fifth season at the helm. “Each year is a new team, and so far we are OK. We’re in a good spot but there is no question we have to get better.”

The lone first half goal happened not long after Holy Family’s Georg Montag – the Tigers’ leading scorer – landed hard on his head, which stopped play and necessitated a call to an ambulance (he later walked off the field). Thompson scored after heading a free kick by Kendall Walkes just under the crossbar.

“Stephen’s been a little snake-bitten, where he’s hit the post twice, and has had some really good looks that just haven’t gone in for him,” Benn said.

The eventual game-winner came early in the second half when Thompson tipped a pass to a wide open teammate, Jason Pixley, for the finish. And then 31 seconds later, Goitia made it 3-0 when he lofted a shot over the head of Tigers’ keeper Mark Tobin, who had ventured too far away from the goal mouth.

Church Farm alum Joel Richmond eventually put Holy Family on the board, but Goitia added an insurance goal with 4:10 to go. And his celebration dance was just as inventive as his first.

“The first was just a little salsa-type of dance – kind of like (former NFL receiver) Victor Cruz,” Goitia pointed out. “The second, it was raining, I was on the turf, so I just kind of did a little swim move. It was all in fun.”

Benn added: “You have to have balance. As long as we are respectful of the opponent and the game, then you should have fun and enjoy playing.

“Holy Family is a good team. I thought we did a good job in that once we got that second goal we continued to attack and didn’t become satisfied.”

The Rams – who have surrendered just six goals so far this season – will take their new found explosiveness on offense into the month of October, which includes critical road trips to first place Gannon and second place Shippensburg, among others.

“(Thursday) I felt connected with the strikers and all of my teammates,” Thompson said.

“We just need to keep pressing opponents, keep taking shots and they will eventually go in for us.”