Brandywine Rolls Into PSUAC Title Game

MEDIA, Pa. -- Top-seeded Penn State Brandywine will return to the Penn State University Athletic Conference women's soccer championship game for the second consecutive year after handling No. 4 Penn State Mont Alto by a score of 11-1 on Saturday afternoon.

Brandywine will travel to State College on Wednesday for the championship match at 6:00 pm. The Lions will face No. 2 Schuylkill, which topped No. 3 Beaver 3-2 in Saturday's second semifinal. Brandywine owns a pair of 6-0 triumphs over Schuylkill this fall.

The Lions (13-1) scored the game's first 11 goals, with eight different players finding the back of the net, against undermanned Mont Alto.

Brianna Banks (Philadelphia, Pa./Parkway Center) scored three times and Rachel Weir (Neptune City, N.J./Red Bank Regional) collected two goals and two assists, while Kierra MacLeod (Pottstown, Pa./Owen J. Roberts) and Samantha Bearden (Ewing, N.J./Ewing) both tallied one goal and two assists.

Brandywine, which led 8-0 at the half, outshot Mont Alto 31-3 and controlled possession for the overwhelming majority of the contest.

Sara Ropski (Folcroft, Pa./Archbishop Prendergast) opened the scoring at the 8:32 mark of the first half. Banks and MacLeod followed with a pair of goals separated by just over four minutes and then added three more in a span of 3:52 as Weir sandwiched two goals around a Banks score.

Brooke Muhlbaier (Millville, N.J/Millville) netted the Lions' seventh goal with 1:13 to play in the first half and Banks completed the hat trick with just five ticks remaining in the opening stanza.

Jennifer Lindauer (West Chester, Pa./West Chester Rustin), woh was honored along with fellow senior Olivia Encarnacion (Glenolden, Pa./Interboro) during their final home game prior to the match, scored her first career goal, continuing the onslaught early in the second. Michaela Lowery (Dillsburg, Pa./Northern York) scored on a penalty kick for her first collegiate goal and Bearden finished off the scoring in the 62nd minute.

Brandywine will be looking to avenge last season's championship game loss to Penn State Beaver, which came in penalty kicks. The winner of Wednesday's game will earn the conference's automatic bid to the USCAA Women's Soccer Tournament in Virginia Beach, Va.