St. Joseph’s women rally to beat conference rivals La Salle in local derby

Saint Joe’s seniors Dakota Mills and Taylor Ryan (Medford, N.J.) led a second half rally to knock off Atlantic 10 rivals La Salle in a Philadelphia derby Sunday afternoon.

Molly O’Brien (Media, Pa.) who had assisted on Morgan Bower’s game-winner in 1-0 victory at Davidson three days earlier, opened the scoring in the fifth minute off an assist from Julia Rufe (Sellersville, Pa.).

The rally for the visitors began 10 minutes into the second half when Mills collected a pass from Bridget Galen (Southampton, Pa.) and fired a shot from 10 yards out in just under the crossbar.

A foul in the box set up the Hawks’ eventual game-winner from Ryan, who converted a penalty kick in the 63rd minute. Goalkeeper Grace Bendon (Doylestown, Pa.) made three saves on the day while her counterpart Claudia Jenkins made eight saves.

With the result for Saint Joseph’s, very little now separates the two local rivals. The Hawks are 6-3-2 overall and 1-1-0 in A10 play while the Explorers are 6-2-1 with an identical conference record.

The Quakers, which own the best record of the six Philly schools, continued their dominance on the defensive side of the pitch playing Harvard to a scoreless draw to improve to 6-1-1 on the year.

The shutout was their sixth of the season in eight games and saw the Quakers move further up the national charts for defense. They currently sit tied for seventh in goals against average with a .365 while only two teams in the nation — UC Riverside and North Dakota — have conceded fewer goals than the three they’ve allowed this season.

Temple traveled to Texas and split a pair of games against conference foes, rebounding from a 2-0 blanking from SMU to beat Houston 3-2.

Gabriela Johnson (Mays Landing, N.J.) scored a 35th minute equalizer and and bagged the game-winner in overtime in the 95th minute. Morgan Morocco (Burlington, N.J.) also chipped in a goal for the Owls, which own a 5-6-0 overall record and a 1-1-0 mark in the American Athletic Conference.

The goals were the first of Johnson’s career to go with an assist she picked up against Maryland.

Villanova split a pair of home games, topping non-conference opponent Siena 2-1 in overtime and losing 2-0 to Providence in their Big East opener.

Bri Austin’s brace was the difference in their win over Siena. She converted a penalty kick in the 33rd minute to tie the match and scored the winner in the third minute of overtime off an assist from Niki Molina. Bri leads the team with four goals.

Drexel also picked up an overtime win at the College of Charleston three days after losing to James Madison at home in their Colonial Athletic Association opener. Morgan Rees (Ardmore, Pa.) tied the match at 1-1 in the 68th minute off an assist from Emma Heckenberg and Shaelyn McCarty (Doylestown, Pa.) won it in double overtime with her fifth of the season.

The Dragons improved to 4-3-4 overall and 1-1-0 in conference play.