Penn wins thriller

Philbin's goal with: 15 left lifts Field Hockey Heading into last night's Penn-Lafayette field hockey contest, Quakers senior defenseman Sue Quinn admitted she did not want a repeat of last year's matchup, which was scoreless at the end of regulation. "We just don't want to go to overtime again," she said. However, after two Penn corner attempts in the final four minutes of play failed to produce any goals, it appeared the 1-1 contest would have to be decided in sudden death. But then senior forward Kara Philbin scored off a corner with 15 seconds remaining to give the Quakers a 2-1 victory. Through the first 69 minutes of action, every bounce went the Leopards' way. While Quakers freshman goalkeeper Sarah Dunn was left to protect her cage alone, Lafayette (1-4) seemed to have the advantage of three keepers -- senior Danielle DeHoratius, the right goal post and the left goal post. With 16 and a half minutes remaining in the game and Penn down 1-0, the Quakers (3-0) smacked the ball deep into the Leopards' zone from midfield. The clearing pass went through the Lafayette defense, and DeHoratius got out of the way, thinking it would go out of bounds. However, DeHoratius misjudged the shot, and as she moved left, the ball rolled smack into the goal post to her right. DeHoratius quickly covered the loose ball, and Penn was still scoreless. After tying the game at 1-1, the Quakers set up for a corner with 55 seconds remaining in regulation. Philbin centered the ball, and Penn got off a quick shot to the left side of the net. DeHoratius again was aided by a post, this time the left pipe. But DeHoratius's luck would run out. With 38 ticks on the clock, the Quakers were awarded yet another corner opportunity. With the clock still counting down toward 00:00, Penn raced to get into position. With 29 seconds to go, the Quakers inbounded the ball and quickly rifled off a slap shot, which DeHoratius knocked down. The rebound bounced to the right of the goal, and Penn slammed the ball right back at the cage. DeHoratius flopped down and knocked the shot wide with her stick. Penn midfielder Sue Pierce prevented the ball from rolling out of bounds and passed it out to Philbin in front of the net. Philbin skirted the ball right between DeHoratius's pads with just 15 seconds left in the contest to give the Quakers the 2-1 win. "I just reverse-sticked it between the goalie's legs over the goal line -- probably the world's slowest goal," Philbin said. It may have been slow, but it crossed the line in time, saving Penn from having to make another trip to overtime. Unlike the final minutes, which featured numerous scoring chances for the Quakers, the first 50 minutes presented few opportunities. In fact, quite the opposite was true. For most of the first half, Lafayette dominated the tempo of the game. "We were having a hard time finding each other, really just finding our style of play and making them play to our style," Philbin said. "Instead we were stuck playing their style of play, which we're not used to." While the Leopards jumped on the offensive from the first whistle, registering four shots on Dunn in the first four minutes, it took the Quakers seven-and-a-half minutes to get their first scoring opportunity. On Penn's first corner attempt of the game, the Quakers appeared to have a goal, as the inbounds pass was fired toward the bottom right hand corner of the net. But Lafayette senior defenseman Toni DiOttavio jumped in front of the shot, knocking it wide right. The Leopards also jumped on the scoreboard first 19 minutes into the game. Lafayette junior midfielder Ali Murphy launched a slap shot from the left side of the circle. Dunn went down and made a great save. The ball rebounded back to the Leopards, and Dunn made the second save butterfly-style. But senior forward Angie Eifert converted on the third chance to put Lafayette ahead 1-0. The lead held up until the 52nd minute. Senior midfielder Amy Shapiro wound up on a pass off a corner and blasted it past DeHoratius to knot the game at 1-1. It was redemption for Shapiro, who had broken through the Lafayette defense for a breakaway just minutes earlier, only to be stopped by DeHoratius. The action moved up and down the field until the final few minutes, when Penn threw everything at the net, leading up to Philbin's conversion in the waning seconds. As the Quakers bench and Franklin Field faithful jumped to their feet in celebration, Sue Quinn let out a sigh of relief: No overtime.