Sept. 30, 2007
University Park, Pa. - Four days after scoring four goals in a win over Lock Haven, Penn State continued its hot offensive play as of late, equaling its season high with five goals in a 5-0 win over Northwestern in the Big Ten home opener for the No. 9 Nittany Lions. Penn State improves to 7-4 overall with its second straight win and also evens its Big Ten record at 1-1.
Natalie Blasco scored two goals for her second career multiple-goal game while Bethany Marvel scored her first career goal and recorded her first career assist to lead the Nittany Lion offense. Jen Long recorded two assists in the game. Jen Beaumont recorded her third shutout of the season in goal for Lions, making two saves off of Northwestern's only two shots, both of which came off penalty corners in the first half.
Penn State scored early and often in the first half, as four of the five Nittany Lion goals were scored in the first half. Shaun Banta got the scoring started just 4:26 into the contest, the quickest goal scored in a game so far this year for the Lions. She was assisted on her fifth goal of the year by Britney Long. The play was started by Marvel, who dribbled into the circle from the left flank and dumped off a pass to Long, who then dumped a pass over to Banta on the weak side that Banta tipped in for the goal.
Marvel then made it 2-0 as she found herself alone in front of the cage with a loose ball at the 14:39 mark. After the ball had gone off a couple of sticks just to the right of the goal, the ball found its way to Marvel right in front of the cage and she finished for the first goal of her career. A sophomore who played primarily back last season, Marvel had scored a goal in an exhibition game vs. Towson earlier this year but officially, this one is the first of her career.
Just under five minutes later at 19:30, Kiersten Wood netted her fourth goal of the year as the Nittany Lions capitalized on a penalty corner to make it 3-0 as she one-timed a shot past NU keeper Emily Kyle. Jen Long and Allison Scola got the assists.
 Shaun Banta scored the game-winning goal, just 4:26 into the game, the earliest Penn State has scored in a game this year.  | |
The Nittany Lions then made it 4-0 a little over five minutes before halftime on Blasco's first goal of the game and her third of the year in a play that was similar to Marvel's goal. This time, it was Marvel who passed the ball into the circle to Blasco, who was standing a little further out from the cage than Marvel was on her goal but got the same result as a wide-open Blasco blasted the shot past Kyle for the score.
Northwestern was held to just two shots in the first half, both coming off penalty corners as Penn State outshot the Wildcats 11-2. Penn State would hold the Wildcats without a single shot in the second half while taking 11 more of its own to finish with a 22-2 advantage in shots for the game. The Nittany Lions also were awarded 15 penalty corners to just three for Northwestern.
Penn State wrapped up the scoring at the 55:14 in the second half as Blasco recorded her second goal of the game when she tipped in a crossing pass on the weak side from Jen Long, who got her seventh assist of the year, just one shy of her career high for assists in a season of eight, set last season. Northwestern's Katie Lynch played the entire second half in goal, making five saves and allowing just the one goal.
The Nittany Lions will look to wrap up their three-game homestand with a perfect 3-0 record on it when they host Syracuse this Wednesday, October 3 at 4:00 p.m. on AstroTurf Field.