SRU men’s soccer knocked off third-seed Seton Hill University 1-0 in their PSAC Tournament Quarterfinal game at James Egli Field earlier today.
The Rock will now advance to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Semifinal round.
The game was a rematch of last Friday’s affair when the White and Green tied the Griffins to make the playoffs as the second seed.
The rematch was not the only drama brewing on the field. The back-to-back tie and win served as revenge for SRU, as Seton Hill knocked them out of playoff contention a year ago in the final game of the regular season.
“Seton Hill is a really good team. Last year we went into the game, last game of the season. Win or tie, we could’ve been in the same place this year,” Slippery Rock head coach Kevin Wilhelm said. “It’s a huge boost for these guys, their mentality, their work ethic. What we’ve done for an entire year since last November 2023 until November of 2024, it’s paying off.”
Slippery Rock’s Rasmus Fugl logged The Rock’s first shot trying to reroute the ball off a header in the fifth minute, though it was stopped by a Griffin defender.
The front 45 minutes of the game saw both teams go scoreless on five shots apiece. Both sides also tallied one save.
Seton Hill’s Nils Heinrich had a chance to crack the scoreboard in the 50th minute on the receiving end of a crosser. The pass gave him room to work with but the shot was denied by the fully extended leg of junior defender Jack Smith.
Much of the rest of the second half was spent in Seton Hill territory. When the ball did travel to SRU’s side, shots on goal were hard to come by. The Griffins outshot Slippery Rock 15 to 6 but only four of the 15 were on target.
“Defensive organization today was very very good. You have to have that if you’re going to take the next step, make it to the semifinals, next step possibly make it to the finals, you have to be defensively organized the whole time,” Wilhelm said.
The Rock cashed in the first and only score of the afternoon five minutes later. Arturo Pla Hernandis found a wide open Aashi Pandher across the field, at which point Pandher weaved through four defenders before his shot beat SHU goalie Jonathan Leary to the far side of the net.
While playing with a lead, SRU was able to keep pressure on while preventing Seton Hill from getting consistent good shots on the net. The Rock were able to kill a lot of the clock by keeping the ball in SHU territory.
“We did a lot better in the second half with our midfield pressure. We got our midfielders onto the ball a little quicker on second balls and we were able to complete passes a little bit quicker through our midfield in the second half,” Wilhelm said. “That gave us a few transitions where we were able to get behind them.”
The Griffins had a chance to tie with a free kick in favorable position with less than five minutes remaining, but the kick went across and the attempt was foiled by a Fugl header.
Seton Hill’s final close-range scoring opportunity fell through when a volley of SRU defenders crowded a James Aubrey shot and coaxed it out of bounds.
The resulting corner kick led to multiple shots, though all went awry or were stopped by The Rock’s backline in close proximity to the goal.
With less than a minute remaining, the Griffins were able to return the ball to Slippery Rock territory, but a sliding Adam Davies corralled the ball with eight seconds left, ending the game.
Fugl’s three shots led the team, with Pla Henandis and Pandher being the two Rock athletes to record a shot on goal.
Davies finished with three saves across his 90 minutes.
The Rock faces off against Bloomsburg University this Friday at noon for PSAC Tournament Semifinal away game.
