Going 3-2, the West Chester Rams returned home on Oct. 3 for a five-game home stand.
The Rams faced Shippensburg on Tuesday afternoon. The two teams went scoreless until the 24th minute when Shippensburg scored off a redirect. With a hard fight, the Rams were able to hold the Raiders to one goal in the half. Shortly after halftime the Raiders increased their lead to 2-0. Senior Rachal Toppi was able to score off a penalty stroke bringing the Rams within one. This goal was Toppi’s ninth of the season.
Shippensburg answered 10 minutes later with a goal from Jazmin Petrantonio. Sophomore Cailin Kelly scored her 5th goal of the season with seven minutes left of the game.The Rams were unable to get passed the Shippensburg defense with a final score of 3-2 in favor of Shippensburg.
On Oct. 7, the Rams faced another tough opponent LIU Post (8-2).
West Chester was the first to score with a goal from Caitie McNamara five minutes into the game. LIU Post was able to answer five minutes later with a goal from Arantxa Rosainz Caloca. The scored remained 1-1 as both teams went into halftime. Coming back from the break was a different story. Kaitlin Hatch scored off a rebound just after halftime bring the Rams up 2-1.Emily Miller from LIU Post scored back to back goal giving her team an advantage over the Rams. With only three minutes left in the game Kelly scores sending the two teams into overtime. Eight minutes into overtime LIU Post put one past West Chester winning it 4-3.
West Chester outshot LIU Post 25-15 with 15-11 shots on goal. Goalie Marissa Elizardo made 7 saves on the night.
Coming back from two tough losses the Rams were able to beat Mansfield (5-6) as they met for the second time this season.
The Rams were able to get an early advantage over Mansfield with the goal from Katie Thompson at 5:31. Although that was the only goal of the half most of the game was played on Mansfield’s side of the field. Hatch scored off a pass from Sophie Ruppert. This is Hatch’s 10th goal on the season. About 10 minutes later Kelsey Munster sealed the win off converting a pass from Lindsay Engle. Elizardo and the Rams shutout Mansfield in a 3-0 win.
There was a big turnout at the Mansfield game for the alumni day. With this win, the Rams are 8-0 against opponent Mansfield.
The Kutztown Golden Bears were the next team to travel to West Chester to face the Rams. With no score going into halftime the Rams needed to find a spark to bring back out and score. Luckily, the Rams were able to find the energy within their team and score two goals to defeat Kutztown. Kelly scored the first goal of the match and her 8th of the season. Captain Morgan Snodgrass scored her first career goal in the 47th minute of the match. The Rams outshot Kutztown 21-4. This was the second time the two teams met this year both win one loss and one win.
West Chester’s final game of the home strength was against Limestone who traveled from South Carolina.
West Chester gave Limestone their first loss in the Friday night game.
Limestone was only able to get two shots off against the Rams. The Saints were the first to score with a goal in the 18th minute.
Hatch answered with a goal in the 22nd minute off a pass from Kelly. This was her team leading 11th goal of the season. Only three minutes later Hatch scored again off a corner.
Scoring her fourth goal of the season, McNamara scored in the 25th minute from an assist from Hatch.
Facing another 1 vs. 1, Toppi scored on a penalty shot in the 39th minute to put West Chester up 3-1.
The next goal wasn’t until the 60th minute and was scored by sophomore Sophie Ruppert. This was Ruppert’s first goal of the season.
With successful milestone in the past weeks, the Rams hope this track continues as their season progresses.
The Rams have four games left, three away and one at home.
Jordan Zimmerman is a first-year student with an undeclared major. They can be reached at JZ885480@wcupa.edu.