WEST CHESTER, Pa. - The Bloomsburg men's soccer team dropped a hard-fought 4-2 match to West Chester in its first PSAC road contest of the 2024 season.

The Golden Rams jumped out in front early before a late first-half response from Patrick Walsh (Macungie, Pa./Emmaus), and the Huskies made it 2-1 entering the break. West Chester answered back with two goals in quick succession to open the final 45 minutes to keep Bloomsburg at a distance. Zach Morales (Orefield, Pa./Parkland) netted his first goal of the season to make it 4-2, but the Huskies could not make up the needed ground to mount a comeback effort.

Bloomsburg falls to 3-2-1 on the season and 0-1-1 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division. The Golden Rams improve to 4-1-1 overall with a 1-0 mark in its conference opener.

How It Happened:
Both teams were on the offensive in the early minutes to open the match. West Chester had two shots sail high in the opening five minutes, while the Huskies had a tremendous build-up play and saw the finish just sail wide right. Sam Blumberger (Colchester, Conn./Bacon Academy) and Walsh worked back and forth on the right side of the box, which allowed Blumberger to leak central and put in a threatening chance early.

West Chester used home-field advantage favorably to jump out to a 2-0 in the following moments. The Golden Rams netted their first by capitalizing on a throw-in. Peter Tichy got on the end of a ball that bounced around the front post before sneaking inside to put the home side out in front.

The second goal was another seized opportunity by West Chester after a misplayed ball in the back took a bounce before a pass inside the box to the Golden Ram's leading goal scorer, Maksym Komperda fired across the goal to the top left corner to double the advantage.

With the two sides continuing to battle, Bloomsburg found its way back into the match at the end of the opening half, cutting the deficit to 2-1. The Huskies worked down the left wing with a series of passes. Jaliyl Melvin (Mount Holly, N.J./Rancocas Valley Regional) split two defenders to get a pass to Braden Alicea (Huntingdon Valley, Pa./Lower Moreland). The defender drove the ball down the line, laying it off to Owen Hollobaugh (State College, Pa./State College). The sophomore dropped the ball at Walsh's right foot as the senior fired home a low-driven shot to the bottom left corner to give Bloomsburg positive momentum heading into the break. 

The second-half start proved a major setback for the Huskies as West Chester found another two goals to take a 4-1 edge with 40 minutes to play. The Golden Ram's first second-half goal came as Tichy slotted in a tough-angled shot at the near post to grow the hosts' lead back to two. The lead grew to three as a header from Alex Fedor hit the inside of the left post and snuck over the line. 

The Huskies cut the lead to two in the 57th minute. After play cycled back to the right wing, Jake Pacacha (Shelton, Conn./St. Joseph) put in a cross that fell to Anthony Schlee (Baltimore, Md./Archbishop Curley), with the captain getting enough of a piece to give Morales a chance to net his first goal of the season.

The two sides battled for the remainder of the match, fighting for a favorable result. Bloomsburg, needing to muster further scoring chances, remained on the attack in search of goals. Brayden Ahlum (Collegeville, Pa./Methacton) took a crack outside the 18-yard box that was saved comfortably in the 58th minute. Hollobaugh had the final clear opportunity of the match in the 80th minute as the sophomore curled a free kick to the bottom right corner that was punched behind goal for a corner.

Numbers of Note:
The stat sheet reflected a hard-fought contest between the teams. The shots between the sides were 11-10 in favor of Bloomsburg, with a 6-5 shots on goals margin leaning toward West Chester. Both teams took four corners on the day, while the foul discrepancy was 20-8 from the Golden Rams.

On The Horizon:
The Bloomsburg men's soccer returns to Steph Pettit Stadium on Wednesday, September 25, at 3:30 p.m. for a PSAC matchup with Shepherd.