Nov. 6, 2010

Box Score

CARLISLE, PA - The Johns Hopkins women's soccer team took down Haverford 3-2 in penalty kicks on a chilly Saturday afternoon in Carlisle, PA. The Blue Jays advance to the Centennial Conference Championship game for the seventh consecutive year and will meet top-seeded Dickinson, a 2-1 winner over Ursinus, in the finals for the third straight season. The Blue Jays are now 15-3-1 on the year, while the Fords see their season come to a close at 12-5-1.

Senior Erin Stafford started the scoring for Hopkins in the 21st minute. Stafford launched a corner kick close to the frame of the goal and the ball ricocheted off a Haverford defender and into the back of the net to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead.

In the 37th minute junior Erica Suter tallied her team-leading 12th goal of the year to give Hopkins a 2-0 advantage. Senior Jenn Paulucci played a long pass up the left side to freshman Kelly Baker, who collected the ball near the edge of the left side of 18-yard box and cut back on her defender. Baker then sent a dangerous cross into the box where senior Sara Tankard was waiting at the far post. Tankard fed Suter in the center of the box about eight yards from goal. Tankard now has eight assists on the year and 16 in her career, tying her for most all-time in JHU history.

After a first half in which they recorded only two shots, the Fords looked like a different team in the second half and started to put some pressure on the Blue Jay defense. Junior Anna Rayne one-timed a feed from freshman Meg Boyer from about 25 yards out to put Haverford on the board in the 50th minute.

The Fords continued to hang around and struck paydirt once again in the 69th minute. Rayne played a short corner kick to junior Erin Verrier, who fed the ball right back to Rayne on the left side. Rayne then sent in a cross to the far post that found the head of freshman Mariah Baker, who headed in the equalizer to the left netting.

The teams remained scoreless for the rest of regulation and Hopkins entered its first overtime period of the season. The Blue Jays came out with a sense of urgency in the first overtime and had two quality chances in the first minute of the extra period. Paulucci ripped a shot just 25 seconds into overtime that was tapped over the goal by Fords goalkeeper Kayleigh Herrick-Reynolds. Just 20 seconds later senior Jessica Hnatiuk sent a shot towards goal after a Blue Jay corner that was also punched wide by Herrick-Reynolds.

The Blue Jays outshot the Fords 10-0 in the two overtime periods but were unable to finish and the game moved on to penalty kicks. The Blue Jays found themselves in an early 1-0 hole after the first round of penalty kickers, but senior Allie Zazzali knocked in her penalty kick to pull Hopkins within 2-1 after the first two rounds of kicks. Sophomore goalkeeper Meredith Maguire, who had not played a minute prior to the penalty kicks, reeled off two clutch saves in a row and sophomore Taylor Schulte found the back of the net as both teams went into their final penalty kickers tied 2-2.

Haverford missed its fifth attempt wide right, giving Hopkins an opportunity to advance to the championship round with a converted penalty kick. Freshman Pamela Vranis was up to the task and knocked home a clutch penalty to help Hopkins move on to the championship game.

The second-seeded Blue Jays will face top-seeded Dickinson on Sunday at 1 pm in Carlisle, PA.