Oct. 3, 2007
University Park, Pa. - Three first-half goals, all in a span of just under seven minutes led the No. 9 Nittany Lion field hockey team past No. 20 Syracuse 3-1 on Wednesday afternoon at AstroTurf Field. The win improves Penn State to 8-4 overall and gives the Nittany Lions a perfect 3-0 record on their now completed three-game homestand. Penn State returns to the road for its next two games, beginning with Indiana on Sunday.
Penn State dominated play for most of the game as the Nittany Lions outshot the Orange 20-5 and generated more penalty corners as well, 11-2. Penn State's goals all came offthree of its first four shots of the game. Syracuse got the first shot of the game in the seventh minute, which was saved by Jen Beaumont and Penn State's Bethany Marvel got off the Lions' first shot in the 10th minute, which was also saved. Those were the only two shots of the first 15 minutes of the game.
At the 15:45 mark, however, Penn State began its hot seven-plus minute string of goals. First, Mallory Weisen scored her fifth goal of the year off a wicked shot off a penalty corner to make it 1-0. Jen Long and Allison Scola assisted on the score. Then, at the 20:05 mark, Britney Long netted her team-leading eighth goal of the year as she tipped in a pass from Kiersten Wood, who had sent the ball toward the cage, where Long was standing just to the left of and waiting to tip it.
Finally, just 2:27 later at the 22:32 mark, Natalie Blasco scored for the second straight game as she recorded her fifth tally of the year off an assist by freshman Daneen Zug, who recorded her first career point and assist. Zug started the play when she sent in a pass to the cage that went off the post and also trickled off Syracuse keeper Heather Hess's leg pads and right to Blasco, who was waiting on the weak side to finish.
Daneen Zug recorded her first career point as she assisted on Natalie Blasco's goal. |
The Nittany Lions outshot Syracuse 11-3 in the second half but were unable to put any more balls in the back of the cage. Syracuse scored a late goal at the 58:34 mark as Gloria Nantulya found some open space in the middle of the semicircle and one-timed a pass from Megan Keller past Beaumont the Orange's lone score of the game.
"I really liked how we strung together those three goals in such a short amount of time," said Penn State coach Char Morett. "It's good that we kept scoring like we have been in the past two games and this is a good win for us heading back into Big Ten play on Sunday at Indiana, which should be a good challenge for us."
Penn State will next play at Indiana on Sunday at noon. The game will be televised live on the Big Ten Network as the Nittany Lions look to move to 2-1 in Big Ten play.