The Rock men’s soccer fell in their final non-conference game to start the year against Roberts Wesleyan University 4-0 Wednesday at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.
Of course, Mihalik Thompson Stadium is not the White and Green’s usual home venue, but the game had to be moved after rainstorms rolled through the Slippery Rock area.
The rain may have slowed Slippery Rock’s offense, but Roberts Wesleyans’ Myles Palmer could not be stopped.
The forward is off to a scorching hot start to 2024. As a sophomore, Palmer has accrued seven goals on 14 shots in his first six games. Strangely enough, all his goals have come from two games against Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) West opponents. Three against The Rock yesterday and four tallied last Wednesday at Seton Hill University.
Palmer opened the scoring by sneaking past an SRU defender and burying the shot in even attacking numbers with The Rock defense. His first goal would end up being all the Redhawks needed as their goalie, Eric Jewson, recorded a shutout in his season debut.
His teammate, Thomas Nagy, scored in the 33rd minute prior to Palmer completing his hat trick in the second half.
Aitor Jorde, Luke Gildea, Ignacio Rullen and Aaron Finney all tallied a shot for The Rock, but were held to zero in the shots on goal column.
Palmer and Nagy both had five shots. All five of Palmer’s were on goal while Nagy kept four on goal.
The loss drops SRU to 2-2-1 on the year.
The White and Green will open up PSAC-West play next Wednesday against Gannon University at James Egli field.
The Golden Knights took both matchups against The Rock a year ago. Slippery Rock will look for a repeat performance from Jorde who tallied one goal on four shots in the latter of the two games last year, a 4-1 Rock loss.
