Monaca, Pa. – The #11 Penn State Greater Allegheny Soccer Team (8-3, 6-2) would fall in a tight one on Tuesday when they loss to Penn State Beaver (6-4-1, 4-0) by the final score of 2-1. The loss was PSUGA’s second straight as they are trying to capture the second seed in the Penn State University Athletic Conference Playoffs.
It would remain tied at zero until PSU-Beaver was able to break through in the 52nd minute when Shelton Hillard put the first goal of the game past Colin Buscok on a penalty kick to make it 1-0 in favor of Beaver. It would not remain 1-0 for long as just two minutes later Daniel Fermin would increase the lead to 2-0 on his first goal of the game, assisted by Ashish Subba.
PSUGA’s offense would wait until the 77th minute to break through when Junior Belmo Nurkic (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin HS) put one in the back of the net to make it a one-point game with 13 minutes remaining on the clock. However, it would not be enough as PSU-Beaver was able to hold on to collect the 2-1 victory and stay a perfect 4-0 in conference play.
It was a very physical defensive game throughout as neither team had many opportunities offensively. Beaver outshot PSUGA in the contest 15-11 and had nine shots on goal compared to PSUGA’s 4. Freshman goalkeeper Colin Buscok (Pittsburgh, Pa./Thomas Jefferson) collected nine saves in the contest as he was handed his first back-to-back loss of his college career.
With the loss, PSUGA now falls to 6-2 in conference play, however, they retain the second-place spot in the PSUAC standings sitting behind PSU-Brandywine who is still a perfect 7-0 in conference play. With two more matches to go in the season, PSU-Brandywine needs just one win to lock themselves into the number one overall seed in the PSUAC playoffs.
PSUGA can clinch the number two seed in the PSUAC playoffs with a win or a Penn State Beaver loss on Saturday. If PSUGA clinches the number two seed, they will have a first round bye week and will play the highest remaining seed in the PSUAC semi-finals.
PSUGA will be back in action this Saturday when they play the first of back-to-back contests against Penn State Wilkes-Barre at 1 p.m.
