On Saturday, the Slippery Rock women’s soccer team clinched the PSAC West in their win over Edinboro. The Rock (14-3-0, PSAC 13-2-0) needed a win over the Fighting Scots (9-4-3, PSAC 8-2-3) to guarantee themselves the number one overall seed in the PSAC west. All of The Rock’s goals came in the final 20 minutes of play, to complete the 3-2 comeback win.
The scoring was started in the third minute by Edinboro’s Danielle Chatten, who scored an unassisted goal. The Rock had control of the ball for most of the game after the first goal, but Edinboro hopped on an opportunity and Clare Crossley made a pass to Rebecca Manns who scored her fourth goal of the season to put Edinboro up 2-0.
The Rock was not short on opportunities themselves as they had 13 shots in the first half alone, and their best chance in the first half came when Edinboro goalkeeper Anna Voelker fouled Rachel Edge. The Rock was given a penalty kick, which was taken by Kayla Swope and Voelker was able to make the stop. At the half, Edinboro held a 2-0 lead over Slippery Rock despite taking only four shots.
“You give up that early goal and you’re already battling, but I don’t know if there were any adjustments. Just play our game, keep the ball and keep it moving, and I think when they do that they’re unstoppable,” SRU Head Coach Jessica Griggs said.
The next goal didn’t come until the 70th minute, when The Rock was about to score a goal and the only thing in the way was Edinboro defender Marissa Shields who intentionally touched a ball with her hand to keep it out of the goal. She got a red card and was ejected from the game and Slippery Rock also got another penalty kick. This penalty kick was taken by Georgia Nagucki, who was able to roll it past Voelker for The Rock’s first goal.
“[After the red card], we were winning the game, there was no doubt. The mindset was no doubt we are winning this game, and just the girls that’s what they had in their heads,” Griggs said.
Just over a minute after Nagucki scored, Jordyn Minda was able to net the equalizing goal with an assist from Tyler Spence. The goal was Minda’s eighth of the season, and she now has more goals than she did last season when she was named first team All-PSAC. After Minda’s goal, the rest of the game was Slippery Rock attacking as they were playing with a man up.
The winning goal came from Spence in the 89th minute off an assist from Edge. Spence, who is a senior, scored her 6th goal of the season on her senior day to seal the PSAC west for The Rock.
“It was awesome for her, she’s had a year and she’s the biggest leader on this team, I’m just really proud of her. It’s such a good thing for her, her family was here all the way from Maine and they don’t make it out to many games, so it was nice for her and her family,” Griggs said.
The Rock outshot Edinboro 28-7 and The Rock also had 16 shots on goal compared to the Fighting Scots four. The Rock also took 16 corners to Edinboro’s one, including 11 in the second half with the majority of them coming in the final 20 minutes. The Rock only committed three fouls, and Elise Forry got a yellow card. Edinboro committed nine fouls and also got a yellow card, which came in the 71st minute.
Edge and Swope led the game with six shots each, while Swope had four on target and Edge had three. Shannon McIntyre took four shots and one was on goal, and Minda and Nagucki each took three. Minda had all three on target and Nagucki had only one on target. For Edinboro, Chatten had the majority of their shots, with four and three on goal.
The Rock now leads the all-time series 21-5-8 against the Fighting Scots, and is guaranteed the number one seed in the PSAC West. The Rock came through on their expectations to win the PSAC west, but still has one game left against Gannon next Saturday at home. The Rock now has 13 conference wins and 14 wins overall. The Rock will return to action to close out the regular season next week.
