Wesley Advances to ECAC Semifinals

Nico Scarpato

Box Score

DOVER, Del. - Seventh seeded Wesley College knocked off the two-seed, Penn State Abington, 4-0 to advance to the ECAC South Championship Semifinals.

The Wolverines (11-9) will now travel to Erie, Pennsylvania for the semifinals.  Penn State Behrend, the top seed will host both semifinals on November 14 and the two winners will face off in the championship at Behrend on November 15.

Wesley took control of the match early.  In the 11th minute, Kyle Long (Delaware, Ohio/Buckeye) shot across the goal from right to left for his eighth goal of the season and a 1-0 lead.

Ryan Fish (Eastampton, N.J./Rancocas Valley) touched the ball to Josh Chellah (Columbia, Md./Long Reach) in the middle of the 17th minute and Chellah struck it home for his sixth of the year to put Wesley up 2-0.

The score stayed that way through halftime until Nico Scarpato (Washington Twp., N.J./Washington Twp.) fired a shot past the Nittany Lions' keeper in the 56th minute. 

With the match in hand, Wesley turned things over to the reserves and Les Ragan (Kingsway, N.J./Kingsway) took advantage of Fish's second assist of the night for his first career goal.

The Wolverines dominated play all evening, outshooting Penn State Abington 26-7 on the evening and held the Nittany Lions' Eldion Pajollari, who had 20 goals on the season, without even a shot.

Nick Talarico (Little Egg Harbor, N.J./Pinelands) played the first 74:19 in goal for Wesley, stopping three shots before giving way to Brian Zuber (Wenonah, N.J./Gloucester Catholic) for the final 15:41.

Daniel Carmack made 11 saves in the loss for Penn State Abington.

In Saturday's semifinal, the Wolverines will face a familiar foe in CAC rival Stevenson.  The Mustangs, seeded sixth, advanced on penalty kicks after tying Penn State Altoona 1-1.

Penn State Behrend advanced after a 2-1 overtime win over eighth seeded Neumann and will host Lebanon Valley, who defeated DeSales 4-2 in the other first round match.