Offense slowed as Lady Lions drop match with Union County

Hazleton, Pa. - After a stellar effort on Sunday night, the Lady Lions met with defeat on Tuesday as they squared off with Union County College on the Penn State Hazleton campus. Union County controlled the pace from play from start to finish with crisp ball movement and physical play leading a 7-0 defeat of the Lady Lions.

From the opening whistle Union County set the temp0 for the game reeling off three shots in the first 4:40 of play and moments later Hazleton would find themselves trailing following a deep shot from Union County's Maya Lawler. Lawler launched the shot in from 35 yards out, sailing the ball into the upper left 90 past the outstretched arms of the Hazleton keeper. Union County would build off that early success, tacking on four goals in the next 17 minutes of action to leave Hazleton facing a hefty five score deficit by the 22nd minute.The Lady Lions shut down the potent Union County attack, but that defensive focus came at the expense of their own offense. The Owls would go on to out-shoot Hazleton by a margin of 20-4 and carry the 5-0 advantage into the second half.

That trend continued in the second half as Union County continued to dominate the time of possession over Hazleton. The Lady Lions managed to keep the Owls off the board until a string of four shots over a two minute stretch ended in a score for Union County that all but sealed the Lady Lions fate. Barbara Ferreira would tack on a late score to cap the scoring for the Owls and officially issue a 7-0 loss for Hazleton.

On a day that saw Hazleton playing the majority of the game in their own end of the field, the Lady Lions ended the day being out-shot 40-7 by Union County. Freshman Emma Wyllie (Benton, Pa.) mustered all of Hazleton's two shots on target in the afternoon affair while sophomore keeper Devon Keiper (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) managed 14 saves in the loss.

Next up: The Lady Lions will look to bounce back after the difficult loss to Union County as they county non-conference action on Friday, September 7. Hazleton will travel for the first game on the road on Friday when they take on the University of Valley Forge at 4:00 p.m.