Quakin' in their Boots: Maryland pummels Penn, 9-0

They may not be the Legendary E-Street Band but Maryland was certainly the boss of Penn on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in College Park. Penn took the field and it would be a comical understatement to say that they faced difficult odds. They were facing Maryland, the #2 ranked team in the nation, and they were playing on a field where the Terps are 133-15 since its opening in 2003. As if that wasn't tough enough for the Quakers, they only had five reserves on their sideline and one of them was a goalie. Indeed, it would be a long day for the Red and Blue.

Maryland started the scoring early as Maxine Fluharty struck off a rebound off of a penalty corner just two and a half minutes into the game. Sarah Sprink took a hard shot off of a penalty corner with 29:06 left in the first half and it deflected in to stretch the lead to two. Maryland successfully defended against Penn's 5th penalty corner of the half with 21 minutes remaining in the first half and then dominated for much of the rest of the game.

Alyssa Parker made a SportsCenter-worthy highlight goal with 19:26 left in the half by juking and completely fooling Penn goalie Allison Weisenfels. Shari Jones added another score with 3:31 remaining in the first half to push the lead to four. Sarah Sprink launched a rocket into the cage off a penalty corner as time expired to make it 5-0 heading into the half.

The heir apparent to Maryland goalie Brooke Cabrera, Jill Genovese, started in goal for the Terps for the second half. After Weisenfels blocked Fluharty's shot following a penalty corner less than three minutes into the half, Carrie Hanks cleaned it up for the second goal of her Maryland career.

Moira Putsch scored on a beautiful re-direct with 30:50 left in the game off of another penalty corner to make the score 7-0 and the rout continued. Anna Dessoye scored off a penalty stroke with 24:51 left to finally give her a goal to go with her four assists for the game. She had a phenomenal overall game with six points and she created several opportunities for the Terps.

Emma Rissinger finished the goal barrage scoring off a penalty corner with 18:22 left in the game and Maryland pulled its offensive starters. Parker stayed in to guide the reserves and Genovese made two saves to maintain the shutout, Maryland's 5th of the season.

The second half was a very different story for Maryland defensively. After giving up seven penalty corners in the first half, Penn didn't get a single one in the second half. The Red and Blue put up eight shots in the first half but only managed two in the second. Maryland put on a clinic for how to execute penalty corners against the Quakers. They scored six of their nine goals off of penalty corners and eight different players scored for the Terps on Sunday. Maryland moves to 11-2 on the season and Penn drops to 4-6. The Terps will head to the Garden State on Wednesday to face a tough Princeton squad under the lights in a rare weekday game.