Women’s Soccer: O’Brien, Bower power La Salle back to even conference record

La Salle responded with two much-needed conference wins last week to snap a three-game losing streak thanks in part to the offensive output of leading scorers Molly O’Brien and Madison Bower, who combined for six goals and four assists in wins over St. Bonaventure and Rhode Island.

O’Brien, a sophomore from Media, scored in each half in a 3-0 win over St. Bonaventure and then added two more goals in the first half of a 4-1 win over Rhode Island. O’Brien had the game-winner in both games while Bower had a goal in each game and assists on both game-winners.

Bower (8) and O’Brien (7) are 1 and 2 on the team in goals this season and O’Brien is second on the team in assists with five.

The two wins put the Explorers back to an even 3-3-0 in conference and 8-4-1 overall heading into another conference match tonight at Dayton.

St. Joseph’s improved their record in the Atlantic 10 to 4-2-0 with a pair of conference wins, beating George Mason 4-1 on the road and VCU 2-0 at home.

The Hawks fell behind less than a minute into the game against Mason before scoring four unanswered in the second half. Morgan Bower had her fourth of the year to tie it just after halftime while Dakota Mills had a brace and Aleksa Peev (Chalfont, Pa.) chipped in her fourth of the season.

Mills connected on a flick from Bower in the fourth minute against VCU to open the scoring with her fourth of the year and Michaela Finneyfrock (Newtown, Pa.) made it 2-0 in the 13th minute with her third of the season. Grace Bendon (Doylestown, Pa.), who made seven saves against George Mason, had three saves to register the clean sheet and was honored as the A10 Defensive Player of the Week.

Penn made it six straight shutouts with a pair of 1-0 wins over Columbia and Lehigh. The Quakers are now second in the nation in goals against average with an incredible .262 average still having conceded only three times in 1,029 minutes. UC Riverside, which has conceded three times in 1,128 minutes is first with a .239 average.

Emily Sands scored the game-winners in both games and was recognized as Ivy League Player of the Week. The junior from West Chester has six goals this season, all of them game-winners.

Drexel split a pair of league games, losing 1-0 to UNC Wilmington and beating Delaware 2-0 behind goals from Lauren Currey and Shaelyn McCarty and a clean sheet from Libby Baeza. The Dragons are 5-5-4 overall and 2-3-0 in conference.

Villanova split a pair of Big East games, beating Seton Hall 4-1 at home behind a brace from Bri Austin and goals from Chloe O’Neill and Natalie Fouque before falling 1-0 in overtime at Georgetown. The Wildcats are 3-2-0 in conference play and 9-5-0 overall. Austin leads the team in goals with seven, followed by O’Neill with four.

Temple resumes conference play tonight against Cincinnati in their first action since a 1-0 win over South Florida on September 30.