Penn State women’s soccer (8-5, 2-4) made its presence known with an impressive 5-1 win over Maryland (4-6-4, 0-4-2) Friday night.

With the help of Sam Coffey’s hat trick, Penn State’s offense easily dominated the Terrapins. By controlling possession and registering 18 total shots, the Nittany Lions were just too much to handle.

How It Happened

Penn State’s offense came alive early and almost scored one early with Ally Schlegel finding herself one on one with Maryland’s goalie, but her shot went just wide of the right post. The offense kept it up with two great shots from Rachel Wasserman and Olivia Damico, but Liz Brucia wasn’t having any of it and stopped any ball from finding the back of the net.

The Nittany Lion’s offense was finally able to get one in with Coffey sending one into the bottom right corner of the net off an assist from Schlegel. After a costly turnover just a minute later, Maryland responded back with a goal of its own after a breakaway score from Mikayla Dayes.

After a few minutes of back and forth play, Cori Dyke found the left post, but the ball deflected right into Coffey’s feet and she found the bottom right corner again to regain the lead. At the 39′ mark, Coffey completed the hat trick after Jordan Canniff sent a great pass that split two Maryland defenders. This is Coffey’s first hat trick and the second hat trick for the Nittany Lions this season after Payton Linnehan had one earlier this year.

Dyke almost had a chance to extend this lead even more, but her shot bounced off the crossbar as we head into halftime.

Penn State’s offense kept it going by scoring again just two minutes into the second half. This time, Wasserman was able to find the back of the net with the assist coming from Coffey. The goals kept coming for Penn State as Schlegel headed one in with a great crossing pass from Jilly Shimkin.

At the 55′ mark, head coach Erica Dambach decided Katherine Asman’s talents were not needed to finish out this game. Boston College transfer Morgan Messner took over at goal for the Nittany Lions.

Penn State’s offense finally slowed, and the game started to simmer down. However, at the 68′ mark, Mieke Schiemann received the first yellow card of the match.

Although the offense cooled off towards the end of the match, the Nittany Lions made this one look easy and took down the Terrapins 5-1.

Player Of The Game

Sam Coffey | Midfielder

Sam Coffey is something else, folks. She had a hat trick before halftime and added an assist, too. The Nittany Lions’ offense completely controlled this game.

If Coffey can keep up her strong play, Penn State will have a great shot at remaining dominant throughout the rest of the regular season.

What’s Next?

Penn State will stay at Jeffrey Field to continue its conference slate against Indiana on Wednesday, October 13. The match will begin at 7 p.m.