Sept. 28, 2008
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Jen Beaumont made five saves, and Bethany Marvel scored the lone goal of the game, as No. 13 Penn State defeated No. 15 Ohio State, 1-0, Sunday at Columbus, Ohio in its Big Ten conference opener. It was the third time Beaumont and the Nittany Lions shut out the Buckeyes in two seasons.
With the win, Penn State moved to 5-4 overall and 1-0 in the Big Ten. Ohio State falls to 7-5 and 0-2 after losing to No. 10 Michigan State in its conference prologue.
Marvel (Newtown, Pa.) added her third goal of the season at the 27:29 mark in the first half. The play was constructed when Aubrey Aden-Buie (Allentown, Pa.) cleared the ball towards the circle, eventually earning a penalty corner on her way to the net. Allison Scola (Hummelstown, Pa.) initiated a corner pass to Daneen Zug (Manheim, Pa.), who took a hard shot that stabbed by Ohio State's Melissa Palm. The ball trickled off Palm's stick to the right side of the arc, where Jessica Longstreth (Richboro, Pa.) backhanded a shot. Marvel redirected the Longstreth shot and placed it over the left hand of goalkeeper Lindsay Quintiliani for a 1-0 lead.
"We had more second- and third-chance opportunities in this game," head coach Charlene Morett said. "I was glad to see us crashing the boards more often."
Longstreth was accredited with an assist to give her a team-leading nine points in her first collegiate season.
Penn State out-shot the Buckeyes, 11-7, and led in penalty corners, 8-2.
Beaumont (Chalfont, Pa.) made five saves on the game for her third shutout of the year. Beaumont made two back-to-back saves in the first two minutes of the game to prevent an early deficit. She made a diving stop on a one-timer by Linda Haussener, who saw a 10-game point streak end, and lay out to make a stick save on a well-hit penalty corner shot by Aisling Coyle.
For the first 20 minutes, Ohio State was able to get into open spaces and force Penn State to reach in. It out-shot Penn State, 5-1, in that time frame but was unable to produce any results. Aisling McKeon had a chance to put the Buckeyes ahead at the 16-minute mark, but Beaumont stretched out to stop McKeon's shot with her lower padding.
Penn State controlled the pace in the latter 15 minutes of the first half and put pressure on the Buckeyes. The Nittany Lions added five penalty corners and nine shots while not allowing the Ohio State any offensive production. After Marvel's goal, Penn State nearly failed to add a two-goal lead. Scola narrowly missed a chance seconds after when her shot nicked the framework of the goal, and Zug had a shot at the 33-minute mark that was caught between the pads of Quintiliani.
The second half yielded no goals for either team, as Morett's defense held the Buckeyes to no shots on goal or penalty corners by utilizing low block stops and cutting down on passing angles.
The Nittany Lions host Lafayette Wednesday at 6 p.m. on the Field Hockey Field. Their next conference game, and Big Ten Network matchup, is on Oct. 10 at 4 p.m. against Iowa in University Park, Pa.