PHILADELPHIA – What a bounce-back performance.
The University of Pennsylvania women's soccer team faced a second-half deficit before ripping off three goals – including two within 41 seconds of one another – to secure the three points and a 4-2 triumph over Cornell.
Sizzy Lawton opened the scoring in the first half, and when trailing 2-1, two goals from Breukelen Woodard and another from Mia Shenk propelled the Quakers back in the lead step.
NOTES
*First time scoring four or more goals in an Ivy League game since Sept. 30, 2016. Penn beat Cornell 5-0 on the road.
*Penn's two goals in 41 seconds was the third-fastest in program history.
*First Ivy game with a combined six goals since Nov. 3, 2012 in a 4-2 loss at Princeton.
*Penn moves to 1-1 in the Ivy League.
*Sizzy Lawton added three points to her season total.
*Breukelen Woodard added two more goals, raising her season total to five – a team-high.
*Mia Shenk's goal was her first of the season.
*Cornell's two goals snapped Penn's 28-game streak in the Ivy League of not conceding multiple goals in a game.
*Penn is now 11-2-2 at Rhodes Field in the last two seasons.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Penn immediately began on the front foot, and Katharine Larson served as the creator of the opening chances. In the eighth minute, Emma Loving whipped a cross in and Larson beat the defender to the ball but knocked her attempt off the post – a familiar sight in the first 45. Just a minute later, in the ninth minute, Chase Geffert knocked in a dangerous free kick, Megan Lloyd won the initial header and Larson got to the second ball, but just dragged her shot wide.
In the 14th minute, Loving streaked past her defender and unleashed a vicious shot headed for top bins, but it rocketed off the crossbar and bounced away.
The Quakers did, however, find their breakthrough in the 21st minute from freshman Sizzy Lawton. Larson dribbled in from her left wing, drove at a defender and then lofted a through ball in behind the back four. Lawton raced into the box, and got the first touch, bouncing it off the keeper before slotting home the second chance. The goal was Lawton's second of her rookie campaign.
The Quaker defense was left without much to do through the first half hour, and Kitty Qu made her initial save not until the 25th minute.
Penn continued to pour on the pressure in the first half. Sara Readinger hit a laser with her left foot from long range, forcing a difficult save. Then in the 39th minute, Ella Wright hit a teasing ball in behind the defense that just missed Mia Shenk's darting run.
To start the second half, Penn hit adversity, and a lot of it. In the first minute out of the break, a dangerous ball bounced off a Quaker defender for an own goal to level the score.
Just two minutes later, in the 49th minute, a foul in the area led to a spot kick and a 2-1 lead for Cornell.
Needing a response, the Quakers hit fast. In the 53rd minute, Laura Hamilton put a ball in the mixer from her right back spot, Emily Sands flicked it on and then Breukelen Woodard finished off the chance to level the game at 2-2.
You could feel the winner was coming and, in the 74th minute, Penn found it. Shenk won a header in the box, directing it off the bar, leaving a juicy rebound in the six-yard box. Woodard beat the rest to get the necessary touch, surging the Quakers ahead 3-2. Just 41 seconds later, Lawton laced a delicious ball on the ground, putting the tap in on a platter for Shenk for the fourth.
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