ERIE, Pa. – Gannon University will host the PSAC Women's Soccer Final Four and Championship Game this weekend.

The Golden Knights made sure of that on Tuesday when they pulled away in the second half for a 2-0 victory over Seton Hill in a PSAC Tournament quarterfinal at McConnell Family Stadium.

Senior Leah Bermudez (Milton, Ontario/Jean Vanier Catholic) and sophomore Gabby Boden (Butler, Pa./Butler) scored in the second half and Kennedy Solymosi (Eastlake, Ohio/Lake Catholic) tied a Gannon record with her 15th career shutout.

Gannon was the No. 1 seed from the Western Division entering the PSAC Tournament after finishing first in the PSAC West with an 11-1-4 record during the season. Now 13-2-4 overall, coach Colin Petersen's Golden Knights are set to host the PSAC semifinals on Friday and the title game on Sunday.

In the 3 p.m. semifinal game on Friday, Gannon will meet the PSAC No. 2 seed, Bloomsburg, which beat Kutztown 2-0 on Tuesday. Mercyhurst and West Chester will meet in the first semifinal at noon at McConnell Family Stadium.
Seton Hill, which closed the season at 8-4-7, had been a tough matchup for Gannon the first two times they played. Both games ended in a 1-1 tie.

Tuesday's game was scoreless throughout the first half as neither team generated many serious offensive chances. Seton Hill outshot Gannon 4-3 in the first half and had a 2-0 edge in shots on goal.

The Golden Knights, however, asserted themselves offensively in the second half when they had nine shots and scored on two of their three shots on goal.



Bermudez, a defender, finally broke up the scoreless game with 17:11 remaining when she made a perfect header into the net off of a corner kick by Sammie Dales (Conneautville, Pa./Homeschool). It was the third goal of the year for Bermudez, and each time she has scored on a header off a corner kick.

"Being on defense, I really don't get to go up unless it's for a corner," she said. "That was amazing. The past few days I've been saying I wanted another header. … Sammie placed a beautiful cross, so it was awesome to get that goal."

Boden, a midfielder, then scored in another fashion on a corner kick with 6:43 to go. She launched the corner kick from the goalie's right side and hooked it to the high, right corner where it bounced off the Seton Hill keeper's hands into the goal.

From there, Gannon set out to complete the shutout. Solymosi and the defense teamed up to while preserve the clean sheet as the Griffins had just four shots and two shots on goal in the second half. As usual, Solymosi was aggressive at times to come off her line to end scoring threat early.

"I thought we were solid from Victoria (Martins), Gretch (Oslick), me and Emilie (Hilliard), and even Kennedy coming off her line to get some saves," she said. "We really held it together and that's what we need for games like these."
"I think the defense did amazing," Solymosi said. "We kept everything in front of us. Nothing really bounced over us, which was definitely a key. We all communicate, we all listen to each other, and we can definitely keep everything organized in the back where nothing really gets through."
 
The 15th career shutout tied Solymosi with Sabrina Chirco, who set the mark from 2006-10. Solymosi also improved to 10-2-4 on the season as she collected her 33rd career victory in goal. That is one win short of the school record set by Shannon Differ from 2014-16.

"She doesn't get the recognition all of the time, and I think she deserves it," Bermudez said of Solymosi.

Now, Gannon will turn its attention to Friday's semifinals against a strong Bloomsburg team, which is now 14-3-2. Solymosi said the Gannon players are thrilled to be playing again at McConnell Family Stadium.

"It's honestly one of the dreams that I couldn't even imagine us doing," she said of hosting the Final Four and being one victory from the championship game. "Now that we have it here, I want to get there, and I want to win. Right now, we have to focus on the game we have coming up."