SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – Aaron Finney scored not just his first, but his second career goal for the Slippery Rock University men's soccer team as it breezed past Shippensburg University in a 5-1 road victory Saturday.
 
The win improves The Rock's overall record to 2-1-1, while the Raiders suffered their third straight loss and now look at a 1-3 start to the season.
 
On top of Finney's brace, The Rock found a first half goal from Luke Gildea and second half scores from Colton Swanson and Arturo Pla Hernandis. Jack Smith earned his first career point with an assist, while Swanson left Shippensburg with three points by also recording an assist.
 
Pla Hernandis and Swanson both generated a game-high five shots, combining for more than Shippensburg's total offense with seven. Finney placed all three of his shots on target, while Aashi Pandher landed two of his three shots on net.
 
Gildea accompanied Ignacio Rullan in each firing two shots. Smith, Rasmus Fugl, Aitor Jorde and Shaun Spencer all complemented the team's production with one shot apiece.
 
Adam Davies needed to make just two saves in net throughout the afternoon.
 
Finney took the game's first shot 6:47 into action and immediately gave The Rock a 1-0 edge. Slippery Rock registered four of the game's next five shots before Gildea made it 2-0 in the 29^th minute.
 
Slippery Rock did not allow Shippensburg to get another look at net before the halftime whistle, heading into intermission with a 2-0 gap in the score and a 10-1 stronghold in shots.
 
While the Raiders were able to quadruple their number of shots taken in the first 6:06 of the second half, Davies and the SRU defense kept Shippensburg off the board. Finney locked in his two-goal performance just five minutes later, scoring on a Swanson pass in the 67^th minute of play.
 
Swanson got his turn to score within the next four minutes, boosting Slippery Rock to a 4-0 lead in the 70^th minute.
 
Shippensburg quieted Slippery Rock's shutout hopes in the 77^th minute with a goal scored by Kyle Ganley and assisted by Luca Heusser.
 
The two sides traded attacks in the final 10 minutes of action with the game seeing a combined three corner kicks and six shots before Pla Hernandis secured his first goal of the year with 41 seconds to spare. The scoring opportunity was set up for Pla Hernandis on the assist coming from Smith.
 
SRU came out of Shippensburg with its largest margin of victory in 24 games. The win, which snapped a six-game winless streak against the Raiders, was Slippery Rock's largest win over Shippensburg in 66 years.
 
In addition to The Rock's second win of 2024, Slippery Rock put up hefty margins in shots (24-7) and shots on goal (13-3). The Rock also earned a slim 3-2 lead in corner kicks.
 
The Rock will look to keep their winning ways alive 4 p.m. Sept. 25 when SRU returns home to face Roberts Wesleyan University at James Egli Field.





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