Oct. 23, 2007
Lewisburg, Pa. - Bethany Marvel recorded the first Penn State hat trick in just over a year and Jen Long scored her first career goal as the Penn State offense, after a slow start, surged to a 6-1 win over Bucknell on Tuesday evening in the final non-conference game of the year for the Nittany Lions. The win improves the Nittany Lions to 11-6 overall heading into Friday's regular season finale against Ohio State.
The hat trick is the first for a Penn State player since Allison Scola recorded the hat trick by scoring all three goals in a 3-1 Penn State win over Northwestern, almost exactly a year ago on October 20 of last season. Marvel, a sophomore who had just two career goals entering Tuesday's game, more than doubled her career goal total with her performance. Long, a junior, scored her first career goal in her 60th career game in the second half.
Penn State dominated the play for the majority of the first half as it kept the ball on Bucknell's side of the field for almost all of the first half as they outshot the Bison 14-2 in the first frame. However, the Nittany Lions were unable to put one in the cage until late in the first half. But when they were able to break through, the goals came in bunches, as Penn State scored three goals in a span of just over five minutes to take a 3-0 halftime lead. The Lions then scored three second half goals in a span of just over eight minutes, including two goals in less than two minutes at the beginning of the second half.
Marvel scored the first goal of the game at the 28:37 mark as she put back a rebound off a Britney Long shot to give Penn State a 1-0 lead. Long had dribbled toward the cage from the left side of the end line and then took a shot that deflected off Bucknell goalkeeper Jessie Atieh and behind her to right in front of the cage where Marvel was waiting to finish.
Less than two minutes later, at the 30:18 mark, Mallory Weisen, playing just a short distance from her hometown of Middleburg, Pa., made it 2-0 as she capitalized on a penalty corner opportunity. She took the set from Jen Long and the appeared to fumble the ball as she attempted to dribble around a defender but she recovered enough to get off a shot from her left side that deflected off the goalie's pad and into the cage. The goal was her seventh of the year, equaling her career high for goals in a season of seven from last year.
Marvel got her second goal of the night just :21 before halftime as she hustled down the field and quickly closed the space between her and the cage to receive a centering pass from Britney Long from the right side and deflect it high and into the upper left corner of the goal to make it 3-0.
 Shaun Banta scored her first goal in almost a month in the win over Bucknell.  | |
The hat trick came for Marvel with the first goal of the second half just 1:50 in. At the 36:50 mark, she put back a rebound off her own shot that had deflected off Atieh for her third goal of the night to make it 4-0 in favor of the Nittany Lions.
Just less than two minutes after Marvel's third goal, Jen Long got the first goal of her career as she took the ball just to the right of the top of the circle and one-timed a wicked shot into the cage to make it a 5-0 advantage.
The Nittany Lions wrapped up their scoring at the 45:19 mark as Shaun Banta scored her first goal since September 30. She took the ball and dribbled from the right side of the circle to about the center of the circle and one-timed a shot of her own past the goalie to make it a 6-0 lead.
Bucknell erased the potential shutout at the 51:52 mark when Katie Leinen put back a deflection off a shot from a penalty corner for an unassisted goal to make it 6-1. Bucknell outshot the Nittany Lions 6-5 in the second half and generated six penalty corners in the second half to none for Penn State. However, the Nittany Lions had eight penalty corners to none for Bucknell in the first half.
Penn State will take on Ohio State on Friday at 6:00 p.m. That game will be Code Blue contest with the first 200 students in attendance receiving a free Code Blue t-shirt. Friday's game will also be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.