Oct. 25, 2005

Final Stats

Millersville, Pa. - Hosting Millersville threw a proverbial monkey wrench into The Rock's bid for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference regular-season championship when it handed SRU a 3-0 setback on Chryst Field.

Millersville scored three second-half goals to hand The Rock the loss in SRU's regular-season finale.

The Rock outshot Millersville by a slim 18-17 margin, but Marauders goalie Damian Ambrosia recorded 10 saves.

Chris Cook, who was named Monday as the PSAC men's soccer "Athlete of the Week" after recording shutouts in both games last week, recorded five saves against Millersville.

Tuesday's loss, combined with California's 1-0 double-overtime win over West Chester on Tuesday, left The Rock with a scant one-point lead over California in the PSAC title chase.

The Rock, which finished the regular season with a 11-7-1 overall record and a 10-5-1 PSAC mark, has 31 points in the system that awards three points for a PSAC win and one point for a tie.

California, with a 12-7 overall record and a 10-5 conference record, has 30 points.

A California win on Saturday against East Stroudsburg will give the Vulcans the regular-season title and The Rock a second-place finish.

A tie Saturday between California and East Stroudsburg would leave The Rock and Vulcans tied for the top spot and would necessitate the implementation of a tiebreaker system to determine the top seed in the four-team conference playoffs.

No matter what the outcome of Saturday's East Stroudsburg at California game, though, The Rock is assured of not only its first PSAC playoff berth since 1985 but also a host role for one of the conference semifinal games on Nov. 2.

Working to The Rock's advantage in its bid for the regular-season conference title will be the fact that East Stroudsburg needs a win Saturday to assure itself of a berth in the conference playoffs.

The Warriors (10-7-1 overall, 8-7) will enter Saturday's game in sixth place with 24 points.

Lock Haven (10-7-2, 8-5-2), by virtue of its 6-2 win over Kutztown on Tuesday, took over third place with 26 points, one point ahead of both Millersville (9-7-1, 8-6-1) and West Chester (9-7-2, 8-6-1) and two points ahead of East Stroudsburg.

In other regular-season finale action on Saturday, West Chester hosts Bloomsburg (6-11, 5-9), Millersville is at Kutztown (3-14-1, 3-10-1) and Shippensburg (5-13, 4-10) travels to Lock Haven.

Only after the smoke clears Saturday afternoon will The Rock know a) if it has won the PSAC regular-season championship and b) which PSAC opponent will be invading Egli Field for next Wednesday's conference semifinal game.

Whatever the scenario, The Rock is in the PSAC playoffs for the sixth time, according to conference records.

The last time The Rock was in the PSAC playoffs, in 1985, the postseason competition only included two teams and SRU lost a 6-0 decision to East Stroudsburg.

Prior to 1985, The Rock had not played in the conference playoffs since 1976, when it earned a fourth successive postseason berth.

The Rock won the conference title in 1974 with a 2-1 overtime victory over East Stroudsburg and lost the conference title game in 1973 (3-2 to East Stroudsburg), 1975 (1-0 to Shippensburg) and 1976 (2-1 to East Stroudburg).