Oct. 19, 2005

Final Stats

Slippery Rock, Pa. - Rock goalie Chris Cook recorded his fifth shutout of the season and Dave Keller scored two goals Wednesday afternoon to help propel The Rock to a 3-0 win over visiting Kutztown in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference action on James W. Egli Soccer Field.

The win keeps The Rock atop the PSAC standings and enhances its chances of earning its first conference playoff berth since 1985.

SRU, which has a 10-6-1 overall record and a 9-4-1 conference mark, has 28 points in the system that awards three points for a conference win and one point for a conference-game tie.

California remained hot on the heels of The Rock with a 5-2 win over Millersville on Wednesday. The Vulcans (11-5, 9-4) have 27 points.

The Rock and California meet in a head-to-head duel Saturday at noon on Egli Field.

West Chester (8-6-2, 7-5-1), which dropped a 1-0 decision Wednesday at Lock Haven, remains in third place with 22 points, followed by East Stroudsburg (9-6-1, 7-6) with 21 points, Lock Haven (8-7-2, 6-5-2) with 20 points and Millersville (7-7-1, 6-6-1) with 19 points.

East Stroudsburg played at Shippensburg (5-11, 4-8) Wednesday night.

Action this coming Saturday will have just as much of an impact on the conference standings as Wednesday's did.

In addition to The Rock vs. California game, West Chester is at East Stroudsburg, Shippensburg is at Millersville and Lock Haven travels to Bloomsburg.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves:

Wednesday, Shaun Reid pounced on a loose ball resulting from a shot attempt by Keller that bounced off the post and promptly placed the ball in the back of the net with two minutes left in the first half.

That proved to be the game-winning goal.

Keller then converted assists from Jeff Hamley and Nick Christy, respectively, into second-half tallies to conclude the scoring.

Cook was credited with four saves in the game, in which each team fired off 14 shots.

After hosting California on Saturday, The Rock will visit Millersville next Tuesday (Oct. 25) for the regular-season finale.

The conference playoffs, which will feature the top four teams in the conference at the end of regular-season play, start Nov. 2. The top two teams will host semifinal action that day, with the winners of those games advancing to the conference championship game on Nov. 5.