Scranton Lady Lions Soccer Falls at Home Against Conference Foe
By: Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics
On a rainy home Saturday matinee on the pitch, the Penn State Scranton Lady Lions soccer squad lost in a 6-0 shutout to conference rival Penn State Beaver. With this defeat, Scranton sees their overall record drop to 0-5 and their all-important league mark moves to 0-3.
The Lions from Beaver jumped out to a lightning quick start scoring four times in the first half of play before adding a pair of insurance goals in the second half to clinch their dominant road victory.
Beaver started their scoring barrage just 2:33 into the contest, when Maeve Valeri found the back of the net, assisted by Allison VanKirk, to give her club an early 1-0 advantage. Then Abigail Pereira stretched her team's lead out to 2-0 when she scored unassisted at the 29:58 mark of the matchup. For Beaver's next score, McKenzie McIntosh got her first of two goals on the day, this one assisted by Valentina Sandoval, to increase her squad's advantage to 3-0 at the 32:08 spot in the first half of play. For Beaver's fourth and final goal before the break, McIntosh scored again, this time unassisted, to give her club a sizeable 4-0 lead at 43:11 right before the half-time buzzer sounded.
In the second half of play, Beaver continued their hot start as Bailey Brown scored a pair of goals, one at 53:10 unassisted and just over a minute later at the 54:57 mark, assisted by McIntosh, to give her club the impressive 6-0 advantage they would enjoy when the clock hit all zeroes.
On the goaltending side of things, Scranton had sophomore Jasmine Bender play 16:59 between the pipes and stopped three out of the four shots on goal she faced. Kiersten Kennedy played 53:10 in goal and saved a trio of the eight shots on goal that came her way on the day. Meanwhile, Penn State Beaver had Kierstyn Mays go the distance in net playing the entire game in her shutout win stopping Scranton's lone shot on goal coming off of the foot of junior midfielder Holly Bidwell.
Now head coach Amber Smith and her Penn State Scranton Lady Lions soccer squad will look to bounce back and snap their five game losing streak when they next host non-league foe Central Penn on Tuesday, October 3rd with a 4pm kick-off, as they look to capture their first victory of the season.