Eastern University Men's Soccer earned a secon 4-0 win over Cabrini in the last two weeks to advance to the PAC Championship game Saturday. The Eagles will take on Misericordia University at a to-be-determined time this Saturday for the PAC Championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Men's Soccer became the third Eastern team to advance to the final in the last 24 hours, with the ten-time PAC Champion women's volleyball squad set to play their semifinal this evening against Alvernia.
In the early going, the Eagles forced much of the action in a midfield dominated game, but it took until the 32nd minute to crack the code of the Cabrini defense. Terry Fry timed a run out of the midfield to get behind a stepping Cavalier back line on the left side. The sophomore midfielder then cut the ball to create space for a serve and delivered a low cross that found Ryan Castle on the back post. The junior midfielder cracked a twelve yard shot into the lower right corner for his second goal of the year.
The 1-0 lead looked to be tenuous, as Cabrini threatened moments later on a powerful header by Andrew Jacobs. Eastern keeper Michael Dorsch was able to parry the ball away from the upper corner wide for a corner. The big save was his only save of the half. Dorsch made three saves on the game to earn the shutout. The Eagles fired seven first half shots and forced Cavalier keeper Bryan Johnson to make four saves to keep his team in the game.
In the first minute of the second half, Eastern scored on a nifty corner kick play to take a commanding 2-0 lead. Mike Leitzel nodded home his third goal of the year with a powerful header on a Bryce Plummer serve. the Cavaliers responded by raising the level of pressure all over the field, and the Eagles were forced to protect the lead for a stretch of twelve minutes or so. In the 59th minute of the match, with the Cavaliers pressing the Eastern back line and forcing Dorsch to make plays, Coach Wagner inserted a fresh group of five players including four freshmen into the match, and that group was able to change the tempo of the game back in the home team's favor.
Almost immediately, the play shifted away from the Eagles defensive end and into the Cavaliers' half. Phil Mantua ripped a ball just wide in the 62nd minute. Dorsch made his final save of the match in the 65th minute.
The third goal of the match came after Scott Patrick found space behind a stepping Cavalier back line and pushed the ball around Johnson with a chance to score on an empty net. The Cabrini keeper lunged for the ball but caught only Patrick's ankle. Fry converted the penalty for his third goal of the year. Aaron Tritch closed out the scoring for the Eagles in the 78th minute with a redirect of a Dann DeLorenzo shot from in close. Castle set up the play with a pinpoint ball into DeLorenzo's run.
Coach Wagner said of the game, "We knew going in that our win at Cabrini the other night was closer than the final score, and that we would have to execute well to advance. With the loss of a couple key guys to injury, the rest of the guys stepped up and made plays. The second goal was really the defining moment of the match for us. Bryce played a brilliant ball in and Mike attacked it very well. We are looking forward to a great opportunity on Saturday."
Eastern out-shot the Cavaliers 17-8 on the afternoon. Game time for Saturday should be announced by noon tomorrow.
