Profs on a Roll

GLASSBORO, Sept. 26, 2009 – The P.A. can be heard as I walk from the parking lot towards the stadium entrance: “Starting for Rowan, Linda Sierra at fullback, Nina Fragoso at midfield, Ronnie Rhea at midfield, Evynn Wright at midfield.”

Add to those four Leah Carney, who’s just coming back from a nagging injury and gives a rugged presence in the back or up top, and there are five players from the Medford Strikers Xtreme playing significant roles for 23rd-ranked Rowan University.

Today was the first chance I had to see the Profs in action this year as they faced William Paterson at home. It was sunny but windy, not unlike last week up in Brunswick, ME.

There may have been a bit of a let-down after Wednesday’s huge 4-0 win over #6 ranked TCNJ (“a whuppin’” as Ronnie’s dad, George Rhea called it) and Rowan seemed a bit out of sync in the first half.

I could see early on that Christie Fink, a sophomore transfer from DePaul who played against the Xtreme for Hibernians, was a positive addition to the roster. Elsewhere around the field, no on was playing poorly, they just couldn’t sustain an attack. And Paterson almost took the lead with a low hard shot in the 21st minute, but Sierra was standing on the line and saved a goal.

Rowan had more chances by far in the first half, including a break-away by high scoring Jess Babice, whose point blank shot was blocked with 12:40 to play, but the half ended scoreless.

Whatever Coach Scott Leacott said at halftime must have worked and it took Babich all of 32 seconds to break down the Paterson defense and put Rowan on the board. In the next 15 minutes Fragoso was denied twice – once when a defender knocked one of her shots off the line and then by a diving save by the keeper. But Rhea scored on a rebound of a shot by Babich with 29:22 left and it was 2-0.

With two wins, including one over a top-10 team, look for the Profs to move up in this week’s rankings.