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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's soccer team will travel to Shippensburg Wednesday for the semifinal round of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference playoffs.
The Rock (11-6-1, 5-4-0 PSAC) secured the No. 4 seed in the four-team playoff and will face No. 1 Shippensburg (13-5-0, 6-3-0 PSAC) for the second time this season. Kickoff has been set for 6 p.m.
The winner of the SRU-Shippensburg match will face the winner of the East Stroudsburg-Millersville match in the championship game Saturday at the highest remaining seed.
Slippery Rock, which is looking to defend its conference title from last season, is the last team to beat Shippensburg this year. Since suffering a 4-1 loss at SRU Sept. 25, the Raiders have reeled off 10 consecutive wins to claim the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
Live statistics will be provided for Wednesday's semifinal game, courtesy of the Shippensburg sports information office. A link to the live statistics feed is available at the top of this page.
The Rock's sports information office will also be sending out live Twitter updates throughout the game. To follow the official SRU Athletics Twitter account, visit the link at the top of this page.
Ticket prices are mandated by the league office at $7 for adults and $2 for students. All students with a valid college ID from a PSAC institution will be admitted free.
Game Notes
Back to the Playoffs: Slippery Rock is looking to defend its conference championship from a season ago and is in search of its sixth league title. The Rock was a staple in the conference playoffs in the 1970s and has returned to glory over the last five years, winning two titles and making five appearances in the playoffs.
Shippensburg will be making its first playoff appearance since 1996.
The Coaches: Michael Bonelli is in his first season as The Rock's head coach and has compiled a record of 11-6-1 in his first season as a collegiate head coach.
A familiar face will grace the sidelines for Shippensburg, as former Slippery Rock player and assistant coach Jeremy Spering is in his third season at the helm of the Raiders program. Spering played two seasons at SRU in 2000 and 2001 after transferring in from Elmira College. He then served as a volunteer assistant coach at The Rock from 2002-04. He is making his first appearance in the playoffs this season.
Preseason Poll: The preseason coach's poll accurately predicted three of the four teams that would reach the conference playoffs this season, with one glaring exception. The preseason poll picked Mercyhurst to win the regular season title, while Shippensburg was picked to finish 10th out of 10 teams. The Raiders claimed the No. 1 spot and the Lakers failed to qualify for the playoffs.
Scouting The Rock: Slippery Rock battled an up and down year, reaching the highest national ranking in the program's history at No. 9 early in the season, and falling out of the rankings late in the season. SRU played one of the toughest schedules in the region thus far, with games against nine teams that were nationally ranked at some point in the year. The Rock reached the PSAC playoffs on the strength of a 4-3 win over No. 7 Mercyhurst last week, upsetting the region's top-ranked team.
The Rock, which defeated all three teams in the playoffs during the regular season, is outshooting opponents by a slim 252-235 margin and outscoring the opposition 28-17. SRU is led in scoring by
Kenneth Fultz with five goals and six assists for 16 points.
Anthony Paganie ranks second with four goals and four assists, followed by
Mitchell Walters with four goals and two assists.
Michael Ramirez,
Toby Bowser,
Patrick Conley and
Jeremy Feehan all have six points. The Rock has 12 players with at least one goal this season.
Greg Blum has started 17 games in goal for SRU and owns a 10-6-1 record with four shutouts. He has allowed 17 goals for a goals against average of 0.95 and has made 84 saves for a save percentage of .832.
Timothy White started in one game and posted a shutout after making four saves.
Scouting the Raiders: Shippensburg struggled out of the gate, posting a 3-5 record in its first eight games, including a 1-3 mark in PSAC play. The Raiders final loss of the season came Sept. 25 when Slippery Rock handed them a 4-1 defeat at Egli Field.
Since that game, Shippensburg has reeled off 10 wins, two of them coming against fellow PSAC playoff qualifiers Millersville and East Stroudsburg. The Raiders lone win against a ranked opponent this season was its 1-0 shutout over then 20th-ranked East Stroudsburg.
Shippensburg is led by this week's PSAC player of the week Miles Harriger with 10 goals and seven assists for 27 points. Michael Celius ranks second in scoring with eight points and four assists, followed by Dave Rostad with six goals and four assists and Derrick Roy with five goals and two assists to cap the double-digit scorers. 13 players have tallied at least one goal for Shippensburg, which is outshooting opponents 334-241 and outscoring the opposition 44-27.
Clay Sale has started 13 games in goal for the Raiders and owns a 10-2 record with four shutouts. He has allowed 18 goals for a goals against average of 1.50 and has made 46 saves for a save percentage of .719. Andrew Foran has appeared in seven games and owns a 3-3 record with one shutout. He has allowed nine goals for a goals against average of 1.46 and has made 34 saves for a save percentage of .791.
Last Meeting: Slippery Rock scored four unanswered goals to open a 4-0 lead en route to defeating Shippensburg 4-1 at Egli Field Sept. 25.
Kenneth Fultz scored a hat trick with two first half goals and a third in the second half to lead The Rock, which also got a goal from
Toby Bowser.
Miles Harriger netted the lone goal for the Raiders to cancel the shutout.
Greg Blum was outstanding in goal for The Rock, allowing just Harriger's header in the second half and making seven saves.
Clay Sale allowed four goals and made four saves in the loss.
Statistically, the game was fairly even with SRU posting advantages of 17-16 in total shots and 3-2 in corner kicks. Both teams finished with eight shots on goal.
On Their Turf: The Rock has played four games in the last two seasons at David See Field after opening both last season and this season with a two-game tournament hosted by the Raiders. SRU is 2-1-1 in those four games.
Last year, The Rock defeated Shippensburg 2-0 and dropped a 1-0 decision to No. 24 Ashland. This season, Slippery Rock defeated Washington Adventist 2-1 and tied No. 7 Charleston 1-1.
