F. Hockey wastes little time trouncing Hawks

Eleven minutes is how long it took the Penn field hockey team to get out all the kinks from the offseason and display the devastating talent that has led it to back-to-back Ivy League championships. Just 11 minutes into the opening game of the season, junior forward Kara Philbin notched the first of three Penn goals, sparking the Quakers to a victory over intra-city rival St. Joseph's, 3-0, Saturday at Franklin Field. "We were very nervous heading into this game," senior midfielder Amy Pine said. "We did not really show our true colors until the second half." In the meantime, St. Joe's took the play to Penn, forcing junior goalkeeper Suzy Pures to make several big saves. But Penn quickly got its bearings, mostly due to the solid all-around effort of senior defensemen Mandy Kauffman and Melissa Sage. With two Hawks bearing in on a lonely Pures, Kauffman sprinted back into the play, rubbing out one of the players and helping Pures to make the easy kick save. Sage quickly jumped on the long rebound and rifled the ball ahead to a sprinting Pine, who directed the offense with pinpoint precision. After shrugging off one Hawk defender and blowing past two others, Pine threw the ball in front, forcing St. Joe's goalie Liza Stagliano to play the ball. She mishandled it to the right of the net, and Philbin swooped in, knocked a Hawk off the ball and slammed it into the gaping net for the first strike of the season. "Kara's goal was typical Quaker hockey," Sage said. "We've just got incredible potential, and there are some times when we just played fantastically." The teams battled back and forth for the next 20 minutes, until Pine, last season's leading scorer, knocked in her first of the season on some nifty passing following a Quaker corner. Junior forward Amy Shapiro capped off Penn's scoring with her first of the season with 5:53 left. "We had the typical first-game jitters," Penn coach Anne Sage said. "We were nervous coming in. But we settled down and eventually took control. "We've got some girls on this team who have been playing for years. They really came out today and took control. The younger kids had never experienced this before, but our seniors knew what they were doing." The Quakers served notice they are a force to be reckoned with throughout the afternoon, showing a combination of agility, speed and power. It is no surprise two juniors and a senior combined for the goals. Penn's strength lies in its upperclassmen. "The seniors needed to pitch in so that we could gain some composure," Pine said. "Once that happened, we started clicking and started to put the ball in the cage." "You saw how we played today," Sage said. "It was just intelligent hockey played at its best. It took a few minutes, but we eventually got it going." And after those first 11 minutes, the Quakers looked like the Ivy League champions they are.