W. Soccer: Quakers win 'ugly' in double overtime

Looking at the Penn women's soccer team on Rhodes Field after Saturday's game against Lafayette, it was clear that something had changed from seasons past.

For the first time in three years, the Quakers (1-0) won a game in overtime, defeating the Leopards, 2-1, in the second extra period after Lafayette goalkeeper Amy Kalista caught Carolyn Cross' header inside her own net.

It was a controversial conclusion to Penn's season opener, which head coach Darren Ambrose didn't hesitate to describe as "ugly," but the result was all that mattered.

"The challenge was to this team in preseason, 'we will win an overtime game,'" Ambrose said. "And they responded."

Both teams' first goals were caused in part by bad clearances by the opposing goalkeepers. Lafayette (0-2-2) broke open a slow-starting game in the 38th minute when Penn's Vanessa Scotto sent a soft clearance pass toward Jessica Woodward, which Ellie Burke pounced on and kicked past Scotto from inside the 18-yard box.

"I'm always the hardest on myself," Scotto, a senior co-captain, said. "I didn't even see [Burke], I just was playing it straight to [Woodward] and didn't see her there."

Ambrose, a former goalkeeper himself, called the goal "a simple lapse of concentration."

"She knows that it's unacceptable, and it happened, and it's done with," he said. "I mean, it's kind of laughable... how it happened."

But the Quakers did not dwell on the visitors' celebrations for long.

Just over a minute later, Kalista kicked the ball straight to Penn's Rachelle Snyder. The junior forward beat two defenders off the dribble and passed to Lydia Bojcun, who put the ball into the roof of the net to even the score at 1-1. The game would stay tied for the next 80 minutes.

Then, as the stresses of nearly two hours of soccer began to set in, Penn won a corner kick in the 113th minute. Snyder played it short to junior Katy Cross, who floated the ball across the box. Cross met the ball with her head, and although the Kalista stopped the shot, it had already crossed the endline. The referee signaled a goal and the game was over.

"It felt good, great," Carolyn Cross said, although she admitted that she wasn't looking at the net at the time.

"That's a tough call in overtime," Lafayette coach Wayne Miller said.

And while his players protested briefly, there wasn't anything to do after the final whistle.

"Our girls are well-trained," Miller said. "We're taught not to disagree and obviously we have a difference of opinions, but that's part of the game."

The main reason for the game's lack of openness was a tight Lafayette midfield, which choked Ambrose's traditional passing-oriented style.

While Penn came out in a standard 4-4-2 formation, Lafayette played much of the game with three defenders and six midfielders -- severely limiting the ability of players such as Bojcun, sophomore Jenna Linden and junior Devon Sibole to get the ball up the field on the ground.

"I thought Lafayette outplayed us in the midfield to start with," Ambrose said. "We stepped out to play like we [weren't ready]... we had no fire."

But Penn caught up, and in the end outshot Lafayette, 27-4. After the game, both Ambrose and Scotto said that the team "learned how to win today."

"Maybe that's a sign we're maturing as a team," said Ambrose, perhaps his highest praise on a day when underclassmen figured prominently in the season opening victory.

When Seton Hall comes to Rhodes Field tomorrow afternoon at 5 p.m., Penn will have another chance to see just how far it has come.

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