#5 Hopkins Tops Franklin & Marshall, 5-0
BALTIMORE, MD - The Franklin & Marshall women's soccer team came to Homewood Field having allowed just five goals in its first eight games. After a scoreless first half, the bubble finally burst on the stingy Diplomat defense as fifth-ranked Johns Hopkins netted five goals in a span of just over 19 minutes early in the second half of what would eventually be a 5-0 Blue Jay victory at Homewood Field Wednesday night. The win improves JHU's record to 10-0 overall and 4-0 in the Centennial Conference, while the Diplomats had a five-game winning streak snapped and slip to 5-3-1 overall and 3-2 in the Centennial.
The 10-game winning streak is the longest to open a season in Johns Hopkins history. Previously, the Blue Jays' best winning streak to open a season was a nine-game run in 2005.
Despite outshooting F&M 7-1 in the first half, the Blue Jays couldn't solve F&M goalkeeper Amanda McGowan, who made four of her seven saves before intermission to keep the game scoreless through 45 minutes.
The tie lasted less than three minutes in the second half as senior Paulina Goodman used a quick first step to chase down a nice ball from freshman Hannah Kronicknear the top of the box, then side-stepped a defender before slipping a shot inside the far post to open the scoring.
Six minutes later, Kronick was on the back end of an unselfish play by senior Erica Suter, who passed up a good look from 15 yards to give Kronick an open net look from 10 that pushed the margin to 2-0.
The trio of Suter and sophomores Pam Vranis and Christina Conveythen combined for three goals and three assists in a span of less than five minutes midway through the half to put the game away.
Suter took a nifty feed from Vranis on the run to the right of McGowan and slotted a perfect shot inside the far post on the dead run from 16 yards out in the 62nd minute before Vranis picked a feed from Convey out of the air right in front of the goal and beat a defenseless McGowan from in tight to make it 4-0 in the 64th minute.
Suter, who became Johns Hopkins' career goal-scoring leader with a strike last Saturday at Swarthmore, notched her second of the game and her career-high-tying 13th of the season in the 67th minute when she flicked home a pass from Convey from five yards out.
Meredtih McGuire and Kelly combined to make two saves in goal for the Blue Jays, who held advantages in shots (17-3) and corners (5-1). After going 0-for-7 in the first half, the Blue Jays scored on five of their 10 shots in the second.
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