West Chester United SC Crowned Keystone West Conference Champions
By Matt Ralph/NPSL.com
Three goals in a seven-minute span broke open a scoreless game and propelled West Chester United to a second straight Keystone West Conference championship on Saturday night.
Needing to beat Electric City FC for a third time this season to continue their goal of another deep playoff run, West Chester United survived an early scare when a turnover in the back produced a quick strike that was fired just over the bar. The chance served as a wake-up call as West Chester started to open things up. Owen Slack fired in a low liner from the right side that Lance McGrane was able to parry out.
Slack was involved in the breakthrough goal seven minutes later when his long free kick found the head of center back August Axtman in the 33rd minute. Two minutes later, Slack was on the finishing end of a good ball when he hammered home Carter Houlihan cross from Drew Blackwell’s short corner.
Slack was celebrating once again five minutes later when he poked home a short rebound from an Ayoub Mouhou shot. Slack had an earlier chance in the sequence when Axtman crossed the ball to him near the six and had his arms up calling for a handball on the block when Mouhou’s rope came through.
“Once you get a goal you gotta put your head down and defend or put your foot on the pedal and go for more and that’s what we did,” said Slack, who moved forward in the midfield from the six to the 10. “Once you move further up the field it becomes more of a responsibility to get goals and I was able to go and get two and help the team out.”
With the 3-0 lead, West Chester was able to limit Electric City’s chances going the other way and forced McShane into a couple more stops before the break.
Needing a goal to get back into the game, Electric City was able to create opportunities through crafty midfielder Joshua Bartels and pacy forward Nicholas Dwamena but the final ball just wasn’t there. West Chester United standout defender Tanner Brentlinger and the rest of the back five did what they’ve done throughout the season in limiting opportunities while conceding just five times in 10 regular season games.
West Chester veteran forward Chas Wilson checked into the second half and was able to dance down the end line and find the back of the net from a tight angle to put the game away at 4-0 in the early stages of the second half.
“I thought we did have the run of the game in that opening 15-20 minutes, they nick a goal and then they play on momentum and they score two more,” said Electric City FC head coach Clint Caso. “Four nothing isn’t indicative, I don’t think, of the performance of our group but it’s always hard to play against their maturity and approach.”
Following the end of the game, both teams gathered near midfield and their coaches shared a few words about the completion of another competitive Keystone West Conference season and how the competition between the clubs has made them better.
“I really do believe it’s one of the more difficult conferences,” Caso said. “We’ve made the postseason three times in 10 years and two in the last three years so I believe we’re making progress, which is encouraging.”
For West Chester United, which made it to the national semifinal last year, they are hoping to ride another Keystone West Conference title back to the national stage again. They head now to the East Region semifinal against the New York Shockers on Wednesday.
“We’re happy to be back making another run at a national title,” Santangelo said. “We have a bunch of new pieces that came in so t’s nice to see the program can just retool and keep moving forward.”
Photo Credit: Matt Ralph/NPSL.com
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