Slippery Rock defeated the East Stroudsburg Warriors 1-0 in overtime to advance to the PSAC championship game. The Rock (17-3-0) finally got past the Warriors (14-6-0), as they’ve played them in the PSAC tournament three times under Coach Jessica Griggs and have lost each matchup.
The Rock started the game off strong, as they came out attacking and nearly scored off of a Sofia Harrison shot that ultimately went wide. East Stroudsburg took control of the game for the final 20 minutes of the first half and kept that momentum in the second half, but Emma Yoder had a spectacular day in goal, as she made seven saves and finished the game with a shutout.
“Obviously it’s very exciting and I’m excited for the girls, they fought hard; that was a really difficult game. It was a challenge and I thought the girls were up for it,” Slippery Rock coach Jessica Griggs said. With the win, Griggs will coach her first PSAC championship game on Sunday.
The Warrior’s Haley Skove led the game in shots with five and got two on target, and Melissa Herrera had three shots with all of them on goal. For the Rock, Madison Johnson led the team in shots, and Johnson who was just named PSAC west defensive athlete of the year, eventually scored the game-winning goal two minutes into overtime. Rachel Edge was named PSAC athlete of the year along with Johnson and had a shot in the game.
The Warriors controlled the game in shots, putting up 15 and tallying seven on goal. The Rock had seven shots overall and two of those shots came in the overtime period. The Rock took five corners in the game and the last came on the Madison Johnson goal. All four of the Warriors’ corner kicks came in the second half and they were all fought off by The Rock.
“She’s a solid kid for us and she always has been, and she thinks she sometimes forgets that she does a bigger job then what she gets credit for, so it was nice to see her rewarded this week with that honor and the goal tonight,” Griggs said.
On Sunday, the Rock hosted the championship game where they faced a very familiar opponent in Edinboro. Edinboro is one of two PSAC west teams to beat the Rock this year, but hadn’t beat them at home. The Rock clinched the PSAC west against Edinboro the last time they faced off, when Tyler Spence scored the game-winning goal with a minute left to seal a 3-2 comeback win. The game was at 1 pm on Sunday at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.
