Last year against Drexel, Penn midfielder Ali DeLuca found the net just 36 seconds into the game. And though 2:50 elapsed this year, DeLuca began her senior campaign with another quick score.
But she didn’t stop there. The senior co-captain went on to score five more goals to lead her team to a 14-7 win against Drexel in Penn’s first game of the season at Vidas Field.
The Quakers’ victory over Drexel (4-0) Saturday also ended the Dragons’ undefeated streak.
Initially, however, it didn’t look like the win would be easy.
Drexel’s Charlotte Wood was quick to combat DeLuca’s opening goal with one of her own about one minute later. The two exchanged goals for the first several minutes of play before Drexel defender Katie Blazer made an unassisted shot to put the Dragons up 3-2 midway through the first half.
“We haven’t played in about a year, and I know we have scrimmages and stuff like that, but nothing compares to a real game,” DeLuca said. “I think we all just needed to get a little settled down and kind of get used to the feeling.”
Once the Quakers finally did settle in, they went on a three-goal scoring streak, capitalizing on two consecutive botched draws by the Dragons.
When Drexel goalie Whitney Johnson ran out of the cage in attempt to clear, Penn’s Giulia Giordano was quick to check the ball out of her stick and pass it off to DeLuca, who scored on a wide-open cage.
The Drexel defense consistently pressured — and often double-teamed — the Quakers outside the arc, making it easy for speedy attackers like DeLuca to make their moves towards goal.
But coach Karin Brower Corbett thinks her squad’s shot selection could have been better, as her team went 14-for-22.
“Their goalie had some nice saves, or we were shooting too late, missing the case, hitting her feet,” Corbett said.
None of those issues seemed to factor into the Quakers’ second-half play. Penn came out firing and netted six unanswered goals, the first of which came from senior midfielder Emma Spiro.
Spiro scored on a free-position shot from the center hash to put the Quakers ahead 7-4. Soon after, however, Spiro — who was Penn’s second-leading scorer and accounted for a quarter of the team’s draw controls last season — went down with an ankle injury and was carried off the field by trainers and coaches.
“She is obviously a huge player for us, and she did her job in the first half,” DeLuca said of her fellow co-captain. “But hopefully she’ll be back for Wednesday.”
Freshman Maddie Poplawksi stepped in to replace a sick Erin Brennan at center and led the squad with four draw controls. Poplawski also contributed to the Quakers second-half scoring spree, as she netted a free-position goal.
Poplawski’s fellow freshman Caroline Bunting also tallied a goal of her own early in the second half.
“[Poplawski] did not play like a freshman today,” Corbett said. “It’s nice to see Caroline get a goal. And I think the two of them are going to do really well this year.”
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