Penn State could not have asked for a better player to take a free position with the game on the line and a monumental upset at stake Friday night.
And just as she has all season, Kristin O’Neill stepped up. The senior midfielder exploded off the left hash, avoided two defenders crashing in on her and buried the shot inside the near post to lift the Nittany Lions to a 14-13 win over No. 1 Northwestern at Panzer Stadium.
It was O’Neill’s sixth goal of the game. She went 3-for-4 on free positions and is shooting a blistering 81 percent (17-for-21) from the eight meter this season.
“This year more than ever I’ve just focused on getting off the line fast,” O’Neill said afterward on the Big Ten Network. “When I get off the line fast, I have such a clear view of the goalies’ angles and where they are. I’m just getting off the line faster and trusting my instincts.”
Nittany Lions coach Missy Doherty’s instincts were on point as well. She inserted freshman goalie Sydney Manning in the second half and the unfazed rookie responded with four saves as Penn State clawed back from a four-goal deficit.
Besides the six-goal Northwestern run spanning the first and second quarters, it was a relatively back-and-forth game. Izzy Scane scored five goals for the Wildcats, who had a seven-game winning streak snapped.
Northwestern (8-2, 1-1 Big Ten) also got a gutsy performance from Erin Coykendall, who exited the game after getting hit by the ball in her midsection but came back to tie the game late in regulation on a sneaky move from behind the goal.
Penn State (6-4, 2-0) won possession on the next draw, but Northwestern’s defense pressed out on ball carriers and kept the Nittany Lions without a shot on goal as time expired.
Manning made her biggest save in overtime, getting just enough of Scane’s shot to deflect it wide after the reigning Tewaaraton Award winner swooped in to scoop a ground ball off the draw among a heap of players.
O’Neill drew the foul on the other end and scored, after which her teammates mobbed her to celebrate the Nittany Lions’ first win over a No. 1-ranked team since beating Princeton in 2005.
“They’re a great team and we respect them so much, but it wasn’t about Northwestern today,” O’Neill said. “It was about coming together as a team and playing for a full 60 minutes. We proved we can do that.”
Well, 65 minutes. O’Neill’s winner came with 1:17 left in overtime.
