Cambridge, Mass. (July 11, 2010) - With three goals in four minutes, the Boston Breakers (3-5-4) came back from a 1-0 deficit and beat the Atlanta Beat (1-7-4) 3-1 for their first home win of the season, on July 11 at 6 p.m. in Women’s Professional Soccer action.

Coming in as a substitute in the second half, Jordan Angeli didn’t waste much time before making an impact. In the 49th minute, she received a ball from Leslie Osborne and hit a powerful volley right to the back of the net for the equalizer. This was Angeli’s second goal of the season and Osborne’s first assist.

Using the momentum, Fabiana sent a cross from the right side in the 52nd minute and Lindsay Tarpley headed it towards the goal. Beat goalkeeper Brett Maron knocked the ball away, which gave Smith the rebound for her fifth goal of the season and the lead.

Then, only a minute later, Liz Bogus received a pass from Angeli and sent it easily past Maron to solidify the win. This was Bogus’ first WPS career goal.

Not only was this the first time Boston has scored three goals this season, but they also set the record for the quickest three goals in franchise history.

The first half was a much different story, as Atlanta came out fast, getting on the board within six minutes from kick off when forward Eniola Aluko broke free past Breakers defenders, making it two on one with goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher. Aluko slid a pass left to Johanna Rasmussen who then had an open shot on goal.

The Beat pressed on, almost netting a few more in the first half. In the 17th minute, Rasmussen, looking for a second, hit a shot from thirty yards out, which looked like it might be going in, but bounced off the cross bar. Just a minute later, Leigh Ann Robinson sent a cross that Mami Yamaguchi just missed the header on.

In the 37th minute it was Naeher who made the diving save when Aluko shot the ball across the net. The next minute, she made a jumping save from a shot that was sent to the top right corner.

Boston’s best chance in the first came in the 44th minute when Smith sent a ball into the box for Tarpley. Maron sprinted out for the save but couldn’t hold onto the ball giving Tarpley an open shot. However, a Beat defender had caught up to her and deflected it for a corner. Laura del Rio had a header off the corner, but it went just over the cross bar.

Despite Atlanta’s dominance in the first half, the Beat was unable to pick their steam back up in the second after Boston’s three quick goals.

The Breakers were without starters Lauren Cheney, Stephanie Cox, Amy LePeilbet, and Kristine Lilly due to U.S. Women’s National Team training camp as they prepare to face Sweden twice this week.  Joining them in camp were several key players for the Beat. 

The result does not change the league standings, but does bring Boston three points closer to catching up to 4th placed Chicago and Washington who now sit four points ahead of the Breakers, each with 17 points each. The Breakers will have a chance to challenge the Freedom, who they face next at home on Sunday, July 18 at 5 p.m.

--Player Quotes --

Tony DiCicco, Boston Breakers Head Coach

On winning two games in a row
The good thing is that goals are starting to come. We’ve had in the last two games two players that haven’t scored. Cheney got her second goal, Kelly got her fourth and Jordan got another goal, her second, so I mean, goals make a lot of difference.

On building themselves into a hole
I wasn’t pleased with the first half.  Atlanta is a very technical team and even though they’re struggling, you could see that they can keep the ball and we didn’t in the first half, so we dug a hole for ourselves. But this team responds and we played a good second half, obviously a great 20 minutes and then rolled it back a little bit so they couldn’t get in behind us. I’m hoping two wins in a row after a long stretch that July, August will be a lot better to us than May and June was.

On the first half
One of our goals is to win the first and second balls. And I don’t think we won our first second ball until the 30th minute. Those are possessions and every time you lose that, you’re defending. That was one of the things we talked about and then we wanted to put players under pressure. When you put players under pressure you turn good players into average players and we did a good job with that in the second half. And this is a team that sticks together and they fight together. I think you saw some of our depth, we’re missing four starters, but this is the first time we scored three goals all season.

Liz Bogus, Boston Breakers Forward
On her goal
Jordan Angeli got the ball and I was open on the left, I called for her and she played an awesome ball and I got on it. After that I don’t remember, I just let instinct take over, and I just saw the opening in the net and went for it.

On the difficulties of staying up on the roster
It’s definitely been a hard month for me, but I believed in myself the whole time. I had friends and family that believed in me and I just fight.  I fight every day to get back on the field in this position. Thankfully Tony [DiCicco] saw that hard work and gave me that second chance. It was definitely an emotional game for me tonight.

Jordan Angeli, Boston Breakers Midfielder
On her motivation going in as a substitute
I guess your job when you go in is to always get that first goal. We were down in the first half and we just didn’t have that energy. I honestly thought, go in and be the spark, be the person that’s running and screaming and pumping everyone up, because something good is going to come from that and that was my mindset when I went in the game. 

On her goal
I don’t know how the ball got into Lindsay Tarpley, I think she was looking to turn with it, but she touched it and it pretty much fell to me and I just thought, might as well try it, so I shot it and I guess it was pretty good.

Kelly Smith, Boston Breakers Forward

On Boston’s first home win
It’s a relief, really pleased with everyone involved tonight. We really deserved it after a poor first half performance by us, we really came back after half time.  We put pressure on the players and got the first step to the ball, which we didn’t do in the first half.  We played a great 20 minutes for us to get 3 goals.

On today’s team performance
We just didn’t play very well the first half, credit to Atlanta they really closed us down in the back so we couldn’t play a passing game. We managed to get it going the second half, put more pressure on them.  We managed to get open, and we’ve got a lot of character in this team, we’re winners and we did that today.

Garrett O’Sullivan, Atlanta Beat Head Coach

On what when wrong tonight
At half time we just said let’s go try and get a second goal and it’s important to get the second goal and put this thing away.  We had a lot of opportunities in the first half to get the second goal.  And amazingly enough we set the focus on our clearances and make sure they were long and high and they weren’t.  It was a crazy 6 or 7 minutes when we gave up the 3.  It’s difficult to swallow, difficult to fathom, but we’ll go back and watch the tape and then won’t comment too much on it, it’s definitely something that shouldn’t happen.

Boston Breakers (3-5-4) vs. Atlanta Beat (1-7-4)
Sunday, July 11, 2010 — Harvard Stadium

SCORING SUMMARY

GOALS	1	2	F
Boston	0	3	3
Atlanta	1	0	1

ATL: Johanna Rasmussen 2 (Eniola Aluko) 7'
BOS: Jordan Angeli 2 (Leslie Osborne) 49'
BOS: Kelly Smith 4 (Lindsay Tarpley) 53'
BOS: Liz Bogus 1 (Jordan Angeli) 54'
 

TEAM STATS

	BOS	ATL
Shots	15	16
Shots on Goal	9	9
Fouls	6	7
Offsides	0	6
Corner Kicks	1	1
Saves	6	5

PLAYER SUMMARY

BOSTON BREAKERS — Alyssa Naeher, Alex Scott, Kasey Moore, Ifeoma Dieke, Taryn Hemmings, Fabiana, Leslie Osborne, Laura del Rio (Jordan Angeli, 46'), Lindsay Tarpley, Kelly Smith (Chioma Igwe, 83'), Liz Bogus

Substitutes Not Used: Tiffany Weimer, Allison Lipsher, Ashley Phillips

ATLANTA BEAT — Brett Maron, Katie Larkin (McCall Zerboni, 70'), Stacy Bishop, Rebecca Nolin, Leigh Ann Robinson, Angie Kerr, Carolyn Blank (Amanda Cinalli, 72'), Aya Miyama, Eniola Aluko, Johanna Rasmussen, Mami Yamaguchi (Lauren Sesselmann, 84')

Substitutes Not Used: Malori Lofton-Malachi

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY:
BOS: Alex Scott (Caution) 90+

Referee: Donald Dellavia
Referee Assistants: Miguel Panduro, Mark Allatin
4th Official: Veronica Brito
Attendance: 4,194