Oct. 11, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.-The Penn State women's soccer team notched its third straight game, all in conference play, beating Iowa, 4-0, on Sunday at Jeffrey Field. Danielle Toney (Northville, Mich.) had a three-point day, while Christine Nairn (Bowie, Md.) and Katie Schoepfer (Waterford, Conn.) each notched their sixth goal of the season, respectively.
Iowa (8-6-0, 0-4-0 Big Ten) controlled the play early, tallying five of the first six shots of the game and 10 of the first 14 in the half. A fluky play is all Penn State (7-5-1, 3-1-0 Big Ten) needed to beat the Hawkeyes for the 15th-straight time.
After a corner kick was cleared, Alli Rago (Greenwich, Conn.) sent in a cross into the penalty area where Toney and Iowa's Jackie Kaeding went up for the header. Kaeding managed to knock it over her goalkeeper, Emily Moran (two saves), and the ball bounced into the net on the far post at 25:57.
From there, Penn State snapped out of its early game slump, providing pressure the rest of the game on the Hawkeye net. Nearly five minutes later, Toney made a run on the left wing towards the touchline and dropped a pass back to Nairn who blasted a shot that deflected off Moran into the right side of the net 30:52 into the game.
The game went into the half with PSU up 2-0, but the Hawkeyes had the six-shot advantage overall. The Lions came right out of the gate in the second stanza and just 51 seconds into the half, Toney corralled a pass and went one-on-one with Moran. Toney made a nice move to her right past Moran and had an empty net, but Moran tripped Toney up, earning a penalty kick. Schoepfer put away the spot kick for her sixth goal of the season and second successful penalty kick in 2009.
Penn State wasn't done there as the Lions pressured constantly, and broke through again when Rago sent a beautiful through ball from the left midfield position to Toney in the penalty area, and Toney slipped it past Moran. It was Toney's eighth goal of the season and Rago's first point of 2009.
The Lions were out-shot, 16-12 by Iowa, but held a 7-6 edge in shots on goal. Penn State committed nine fouls to the Hawkeyes' four and had a 6-4 advantage in corner kicks.
Penn State will return to action when the Lions hit the road for two games next weekend at Minnesota (Friday at 8:00 p.m. ET) and Wisconsin (Sunday, Oct. 18 at 1:00 p.m. ET). Check GoPSUsports.com for in-game coverage of the matches in the Midwest.
--NITTANY LIONS--