Sept. 13, 2015
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SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The seventh-ranked Penn State women's soccer team concluded its non-conference portion of the season with a 1-0 win over Santa Clara Sunday afternoon at Stevens Stadium. Mallory Weber (Novi, Mich.) scored the game-winning goal in the 63rd minute.
Penn State improves to 5-1-1 on the season, while Santa Clara falls to 4-3-0.
The Nittany Lion offense put pressure on the Bronco defense early in the contest as they recorded three shots within the first 10 minutes of play. At the four minute mark, Ellie Jean (Coventry, Conn.) recorded the first shot of the match for Penn State, but the ball went high over the net.
Santa Clara's Andi Tostanoski recorded her first save of the match on Raquel Rodriguez' (San Jose, Costa Rica) shot from five yards out in the sixth minute. A few minutes later, Tostanoski stepped up for her second save of the afternoon on Megan Schafer's (Langhorne, Pa.) shot attempt from the right side of the penalty area in the 10th minute.
In the 19th minute, Santa Clara's Jenna Roering stole the ball outside the penalty area and just had Britt Eckerstrom (Germantown, Md.) to beat. Before Roering could get a controlled shot off, Eckerstrom came charging towards the top of the penalty area and recorded her first save of the day.
During the closing minute of the first half, Schafer found Marissa Sheva (Sellersville, Pa.) behind the Bronco defense in the penalty area, but she was called for offsides.
After the first 45 minutes of play, Penn State led 5-1 in shots and 3-2 in corner kicks.
Looking to tally the first goal of the contest, Jordan Jesolva recorded her first shot of the day in the 50th minute off a Bronco corner kick, but Eckerstrom was there for her second and final save of the match.
A few minutes later, Weber tallied a pair of shot attempts, but they both were wide of the net. Though her first two shot attempts went wide, her third shot attempt was on target.
A little more than 10 minutes after her first two shot attempts, Weber received a pass from Rodriguez 30 yards out. Once she received the ball, Weber had plenty of room to run towards the net. With the wide open space, Weber continued to run down the right side of the field before she fired the ball from 19 yards out into the upper right corner of the net for her team-leading fourth goal of the season.
A little over a minute later, Tostanoski recorded another save as Weber was looking for her second goal of the game.
Tostanoski made her final fifth and final save in the 72nd minute on Weber. After attempting zero shots in the first 50 minutes of play, Weber rattled off five shots in a 20-minute span.
During the final 20 minutes of the game, the Broncos and Nittany Lions exchanged shot attempts, but neither team was able to find the back of the net giving the Nittany Lions a 1-0 victory.
In the match, the Nittany Lions outshot the Broncos, 12-7, with a shot on goal advantage of 6-2.
Weber led the offensive charge for the Nittany Lions with five shot attempts, while Rodriguez recorded four shots.
All-time at Penn State, Weber has tallied 84 career points, which ranks ninth. Weber has scored 32 career goals, 11 of which have been game winners. Her 32 career goals rank ninth all-time at PSU and her 11 game-winning goals are 10th-best at Penn State.
After allowing a goal at 7:08 against then-No. 12 West Virginia last week, the Nittany Lion defense has not allowed a goal in 262:52 minutes of play.
Penn State returns home to Jeffrey Field for a weekend homestand against Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Nittany Lions will host the Badgers live on BTN on Thursday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m. The weekend homestand comes to a close with the Golden Gophers on Sunday, Sept. 20, at 1 p.m. on BTN Plus on BTN2Go.