Sept. 15, 2010

Box Score

Baltimore, Md. - The George Mason women's soccer scored four second-half goals to overcome a halftime deficit and beat the UMBC Retrievers, 4-3 on Wednesday. The win gave Mason its third-straight victory and the Patriots have now scored 11 goals in their past two outings.

Omolyn Davis, who entered the contest 20th in the nation in assists had a pair while Zoe Doherty scored twice. Tiana Kallenberger had a goal and an assist as well for the Patriots, who are now 4-2-1 with one non-conference match remaining. The Retrievers fell to 1-5-1.

"I told them that I had confidence that we could come back," said Mason head coach Diane Drake. "That we played really bad in the first half and if we came out and played to our abilities, we would get a goal and come back one at a time. I told them that first goal had to come in the first five minutes and it did, and then that second one came in the next five minutes so that was pretty important."

The Retrievers got on the board in the 21st minute on a counterattack. After Capricia Alston shot a ball high, UMBC sent the goal kick upfield quickly. Nicole Clark came up the right side, crossed to Amy Savage who made one move and put the ball in the lower left corner of the net for the match's first goal. The Retrievers were able to add to the lead in the 42nd minute when Stephanie Smith scored unassisted, blasting the ball from 28 yards out into the top left corner of the net.

The Mason team that took the field in the second half bore little resemblance to the first-half squad. In the 47th minute, Tiana Kallenberger touched the ball to Janice Johnson who moved the ball along to Zoe Doherty. The first-year forward put the ball into the bottom left corner to cut the deficit in half. In the 52nd minute, Johnson crossed the ball to Doherty but a UMBC defender put her foot in the path, stopping the cross, but scoring an own goal in the process. The Patriots made it 3-2 in the 60th minute when Omolyn Davis had her shot saved only to see the rebound squib out to an unmarked Kallenberger who dribbled the ball a yard to the right and tapped it into the empty net.

It was less than a minute later that UMBC tied the score. A Mason foul in the box gave Rachel McKee a penalty kick and she made it a 3-3 contest. But in the 67th minute, Doherty put the Patriots back ahead when she took a pass from Davis and her shot was too much as Kadet got her hands on it but couldn't keep it out of the net.

Mason did dominate shots in the first half 10-5 despite the 2-0 deficit. That edge continued in the second half as Mason took 10 shots to UMBC's four. Mason had a 13-6 edge in shots on goal and a 2-0 edge in corner kicks as well. Alex Bodenschatz finished with three saves while Lauren Kadet had nine.

The Patriots will return to action on Friday when they play at Maryland at 7 p.m.