Nittany Lions use big 2nd half to top Jays
Lazo, Carter combine to lead Penn State back from 8-4 deficit at halftime
The Johns Hopkins women’s lacrosse team has done a good job of holding down its first two Big Ten opponents in the first half. It’s the second half they have to work on.
The No. 17 Blue Jays led No. 5 Penn State by four goals at the half Saturday in the first Big Ten women’s game played at Homewood Field, but the Nittany Lions turned that around in a big way for a 16-10 victory.
After three early ties, the Blue Jays (8-3, 0-2 Big Ten) scored the last five goals of the first half for an 8-4 lead. Last weekend, they kept No. 1 Maryland within four goals at the half.
Both times, the second half got away from them. Maryland outscored them 10-1 for a 17-4 win. On Saturday, Penn State outscored them, 12-2, in the final 30 minutes, including an 8-0 run to finish the game.
Blue Jays senior Haley Schweizer said her squad is usually a second-half team, so it was excited by the halftime lead. But the Nittany Lions (10-1, 2-0) made some adjustments on the draw and on defense that her team was slow to counter. The Nittany Lions finished with a 17-11 advantage on the draw, winning six of the last eight.
“I think the draw was really what got us,” Schweizer said. “We were dominating the draw ... and then, second half, we just couldn’t get into a rhythm. They moved their girls on the line, kind of adjusted to where we were going, but those second ground balls off the draw, we didn’t take too clean.”
In the first half, when Shannon Fitzgerald tied the game at 4 for the Blue Jays, she started a five-goal run for an 8-4 halftime lead.
After Fitzgerald’s tying goal, Hopkins goalie Caroline Federico (Maryvale) saved three free-position attempts by the Nittany Lions as she and her defense held Penn State without a goal for the final 14:10 of the half.
Federico, who finished with 11 saves, opened the second half with another one, but the Nittany Lions forced a turnover on the clear and Abby Smucker (C. Milton Wright) pulled them within 8-5 three minutes into the half.
That sparked the Penn State for a half in which it outshot Hopkins 24-9.
The Blue Jays held on to the lead, with their last goal coming from Schweizer for a 10-8 edge with 18:19 left. A minute later, Steph Lazo (St. Mary’s) cut it to one. Madison Carter (South River) tied it at 10 with 13:11 to go.
Lazo, who scored three of her five goals in the final run, scored the game-winner with 12:19 to go. Penn State 4 Johns Hopkins 8 Goals: PS—Carter 6, Lazo 5, Smucker 3, Bleistein, O’Donnell; JH— Fitzgerald 2, Kenul 2, Schweizer 2, DeMase, Ibello, Maffucci, Souder. Assists: PS—Gallagher 4, Daggett 2, Brisolari, Lazo; JH—Kenul, Schneidereith, Schweizer. Saves: PS—Rainone 10; JH—Federico 11.