Poets Lose Season Opener to Principia

The Whittier College women's soccer team opened its season at home today, with the temperature in triple digits at game time.  However, it was their opponents, the Principia College Panthers, who burnt the Poets with a 6-0 defeat.

The Panthers opened the scoring in the 15th minute as Johanna Publicover netted the first goal on a day in which she recorded a first half hat trick.  She also scored in the 17th and 21st minutes of the game, giving Principia a 3-0 lead at halftime.

Principia continued the scoring in the second half.  In the 58th minute, a miss kick by a Whittier defender resulted in an own goal to increase the lead to four.  The Panthers' Johanna Mehring beat the keeper from long range just two minutes later and Kayleigh Kavanagh  put on the finishing touches in the 65th minute.

The Poets' offense was unable to muster a shot attempt against the Panther defense, while Principia peppered the Whittier goal with 16 shots, nine of which were on goal.  Poets goalkeeper Lowhren Aceves '10 made three saves in 30 minutes of play.

The Poets are in action again on September 5th, when they take on visiting Chapman University at 6:30pm.