2008 Woodie Awards
Simply Amazing
Men's soccer wins second PSAC title in team history
By Travis Pickens
Rocket Contributor
Issue date: 11/11/05 Section: Sports
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The Rock's 2-1 win Sunday over No. 25 California (Pa.) gave the Rock the PSAC tournament championship, moving into the third and final playoff spot in the Northeast Region. Coming into Sunday's match, the Rock was ranked fourth and California was ranked third in the region.
On Tuesday night, Thompson said he received notice of his team's invitation. The Rock (12-7-2) will meet New York Institute of Technology today at 1 p.m. The match is hosted by regional No. 1 seed Dowling College of Oakdale, N.Y.
"Winning the PSAC is awesome," Thompson said. "Our goal was to make the (PSAC) playoffs. Every day just keeps getting better."
In order to reach the championship game, SRU survived a seven-round shootout last week against Lock Haven. And in the championship match, the Rock battled difficult field conditions, strong wind in the first half and a 40-minute lightning delay at halftime.
"We just took it one game at a time," Thompson said of his team's run to its first conference title since 1974. "We were a little bit lucky against Lock Haven, but we'll take it. After we won that game, it was like we had already won the championship. To get to the final for us was another huge stepping stone."
Despite reaching the championship in such thrilling fashion, Thompson said he worried about his team coming out slow in the championship game.
"They came out a little bit flat," Thompson said of California. "They've been in the final four times now and haven't won it. I have a feeling that was kind of playing on their minds. They came out flat, we came out flying. Once we scored the two goals, we never looked back."
The Rock took control of the PSAC regular-season champion Vulcans early with a pair of goals two minutes apart. Gary Saunders found the net for a team-leading seventh time this season in the 21st minute, and Jeff Hamley followed in the 23rd with his first goal of the year, which turned out to be the game winner.
