Wittenberg's Suzanne Medwid Tries To Dribble Past Behrend's Julie Bonomo

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers and the Penn State-Behrend Lions battled out 55 minutes of hard-nosed, high-energy, and scoreless soccer. In the 56th minute, everything changed. Wittenberg opened a floodgate of offense and reeled off four goals before the end of the game while still holding the Lions scoreless. But the game was much closer than the 4-0 final would indicate.

For one half and 10 minutes, the Lions fought step for step with the Tigers, who host a four-team cluster of first and second round games this weekend. After Calvin College and Capital University battled through two overtimes, the Lions and Tiger got ready for a bear of a game, with the wind howling and spits of rain occassionally falling. But ten minutes in to the second half, Stephanie Sharp (West Chester, Ohio/Lakota East) scored the game's first goal on a Lindsey Rusch (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) assist.

The goal appeared to loosen up the Red & White, who played their standard defensively paced first half. After that, the Tigers sailed through until the end of the game, pushing the ball repeatedly into Behrend territory. Adding two goals was Amanda Farrell (Loveland, Ohio/Loveland), one coming on a laser shot direct free kick, over the wall and just under the crossbar. Sara Pirozzi (Akron, Ohio/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy) added the fourth and final goal with just 30 seconds to go in the game.

On the Lion's side, goalkeeper Kayla Frost played an excellent game in the net, racking up 12 saves on the night. Kelly Thill landed a shot on goal for Behrend, the team's only one all night. Particularly strong was the Behrend defense which held the Tigers at bay for the entire first half. Julie Bonomo, Thill, Emily Rogan, Katie Ritchey and the rest of the defender all put up a stone wall.

With the win, Wittenberg advances to the second round of the NCAA tournament, facing Calvin College tomorrow at 6 p.m., again at Edwards-Maurer Field in Springfield, Ohio, on the campus of Wittenberg University. Calvin tied Capital University in the early game Friday, advancing on penalty kicks.

Written by: John Strawn