by Matt Koll
The Chatham Cougars (11-5-1, 7-2 PAC) became “road warriors” on Wednesday night, and if they want to add “PAC champions” to their title as well, they’ll have to do it again Saturday.
It was the fourth-straight year Chatham and Grove City met in the PAC tournament, all hosted by the Wolverines. Last spring, Chatham took the title in a 3-1 match for their first ever league championship.
Wednesday, the Cougars survived what was a potent Grove City attack to force the game into overtime scoreless. The Wolverines held an incredible 21-4 shot advantage through regulation, including an 11-3 advantage in shots on goal. It was sophomore Aliyah Hunter who scored in the 95th minute in overtime, converting on a corner kick from junior Greta Mort to win it.
The 1-0 win was fitting for this team, boasting the conference’s second-lowest goals allowed per game average as well as the second-highest shutout rate.
Chatham will meet the Westminster Titans (16-1-1, 9-0 PAC) on the other side of this PAC title match on Saturday night at 7 in Wilmington, PA. A worthy foe, to say the least.
The Titans come in having a perfect record in conference play while ranking first in shots, goals, points, goals allowed, goals against average and shutouts. They took care of business in the semifinal round, compiling yet another clean sheet in a 4-0 against No. 4 seed W&J. Westminster will take on defending champion Chatham while making its first appearance in the title match since 2018.
So, what makes this team different from those of the past few years?
“We do have more depth in the squad and different players can make an impact on the field and change the outcome,” said Westminster head coach Girish Thakar. “Maybe [it’s] confidence in growing with players with each match they play. Maybe [being] so close to winning the championship in the last three seasons has left a bad taste in their mouth.”
One of the top contributors for the Titans, who’s been through that experience of being so close to a championship, is junior Julia Redilla. Redilla scored on a free kick in the 45th minute of Tuesday’s semifinal match to give Westminster a 1-0 lead going into halftime. It’s no surprise that she showed up on the stat sheet, as she’s the PAC leader in goals and game-winning goals.
“Julia is our leader on and off the team,” said Thakar. “She has again stepped up and it makes her one of the most dangerous players in the conference.”
Westminster also has a couple of rising stars in first year players Brooke Horvath and Allie Augustine. Both of them show up in the PAC top 10 in many offensive categories and both scored in the semifinal game against W&J.
The star power doesn’t stop there in this title match, though. Chatham senior Morgan Anderson is in the top 10 in shots (5th), points (8th), goals (7th) and game-winning goals (3rd). And it doesn’t even stop with offense, either. Westminster senior goalkeeper Camille Holzschuh and Chatham junior goalkeeper Tyler Colburn come into this match as the first and second-leading goalies respectively in save percentage and shutouts.
In their lone regular season matchup on October 20, the Titans shutout the Cougars 2-0 on the road, while outshooting Chatham 12 to 6.
So what will we get on Saturday? Will those top-level keepers keep these high-powered offenses at bay? Or it will be the offenses that rise up to win it? Will Chatham be crowned back-to-back-champions? Or will the regular season dominance for Westminster end in a conference title?
