After 337 minutes and a one-day postponement the Penn women's soccer team scored a goal.
Penn fell behind early in a game that was originally supposed to be played at Rhodes Field on the first day of October instead of on the road on the next-to-last day of the month before Katy Cross ended the ignominious streak.
The Quakers (7-5-3, 1-3-1 Ivy) offense exploded last night in a 5-2 win over Lehigh (8-9-1) in Bethlehem, Pa., with Cross eventually scoring four goals in the rout.
"It was good for the girls to get rewarded," Penn coach Darren Ambrose said. "It's just a reminder to them that we are that good and we can score goals."
Cross showed why she holds the all-time Penn points record when she tied the game in the 37th minute, following the initial score by Lehigh's Gina Lewandowski in the eighth minute.
Sophomore midfielder Jenna Linden played a ball to classmate Carolyn Cross, who was making a diagonal run across the 18-yard box. She beat Engineers goalkeeper Erin Iwaskiewicz and Katy Cross made sure of the goal by getting the last touch.
Carolyn Cross would get on the score sheet herself in the 60th minute, receiving the ball from freshman defender Cathy Roe and slamming a shot home from 18 yards out.
Lehigh's Jocelyn Helwig would tie the game at 2-2 in the 69th minute after cleaning up a rebounded shot, but it was all Katy Cross after that.
Penn took the lead for good in the 79th minute when Cross headed home a Lydia Bojcun corner kick from close range. She would double the margin in the 80th minute on what Ambrose called "one of the greatest pieces of individual skill I've seen this year from our players" -- and again the two Crosses led the way.
The play started when Carolyn Cross took a hit from behind while making a run with the ball, but managed to stay on her feet. She poked the ball to Katy Cross, who slotted it home.
The last goal came in the 87th minute, when a Lehigh clearance fell to Penn defender Jessica Woodward. She made a run down the right flank and sent a service into the 18-yard box. The ball hit a defender and came to Katy Cross, who volleyed home her fourth and Penn's fifth goal of the night. It was the Claremont, Calif., native's 13th goal of the season.
For a team which has struggled at times to live up to the expectations placed on its offense at the beginning of the season, a game like this was desperately needed.
"We got them down and put them down, especially the last 20 minutes of the game," Ambrose said. "It was good to see the girls have so much fun when they were playing, and they played very well."
The issue now will be taking that confidence to Providence, R.I., for a game tomorrow against Brown. And on the day after Halloween, the Bears will be looking to pull plenty of tricks on the Red and Blue off set pieces, their specialty. But although two road games in three days makes for plenty of traveling, Ambrose thinks that it will also keep spirits high.
"My message to every team I've coached that plays against Brown is to expect the unexpected," he said, although he added that he thinks the team has seen "a shift in momentum -- so we're confident."
