Amy LePeilbet and the Breakers' defense were up to the task against Abby Wambach's Washington Freedom in a 3-1 Boston victory.  (Tony Quinn | isiphotos.com)

Boxscore (All statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial.)

BOYDS, Md. (April 18, 2009) - The first two penalty kicks in league history each turned out favorably for the Boston as Kelly Smith opened the scoring from the penalty spot while Kristin Luckenbill saved what would have been a go-ahead Abby Wambach penalty 16 minutes later in the Breakers’ 3-1 win over the Washington Freedom in Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) action Saturday evening at the Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds, Md.

Smith, the reigning WPS Player of the Week, put the Breakers (2-1-0) in front with her league-leading third goal of the season in the 56th minute. Angela Hucles was fouled inside the area by Freedom goalkeeper Briana Scurry to lead to the spot kick.

The Freedom (0-2-1) came right back and leveled the score just four minutes later on a goal from Lori Lindsey, assisted by Rebecca Moros, and then had a chance to take the lead in the 72nd minute after Boston defender Amy LePeilbet was called for a hand ball in the box. Wambach’s penalty attempt was saved by a diving Luckenbill, who read correctly toward the lower right hand corner.

With expectations continuing to grow for Wambach to score her first WPS goal, Scurry says more patience is needed.

“Abby’s getting into it,” Scurry said. “She had a major injury. Sometime these things take time and I’m sure she’s doing everything she can to get back to herself. Eventually she will get a goal and I think after she gets one, she’ll get plenty.”

The Breakers made the Freedom pay for the PK miss by capitalizing four minutes later on a header by second-half substitute Christine Latham. After a nice run by Kristine Lilly led to a Latham cross that was cleared by Scurry, Alex Scott sent the ball back in to Latham, who headed the ball past Scurry.

"That ball had eyes,” said Scurry, who got a finger on Latham’s header. “Latham got up well for it. It was like that in the first half too but fortunately we were able to get our heads on the ball.

“You’ve got to be careful, you’ve got to be tight. You’ve got to have everybody in position at every moment with [Boston] because they have such great attacking weapons. They’re going to punish you if you’re not careful.”

Angela Hucles added to the Breakers lead in the 81st minute with an unassisted goal from the edge of the penalty area into the upper corner of the goal.

The teams battled an evenly contested first half with chances on both sides despite the 0-0 scoreline. Boston’s best chance of the first half came in the 36th minute when Lilly turned and beat a Freedom defender in side the penalty area, beat Scurry, but had her effort headed away by Becky Sauerbrunn in time to prevent the goal.

"There was some good and some bad,” said Breakers head coach Tony DiCicco. “I thought our back line and our goalkeeper Luckenbill defended very well. Offensively we finished very well in the second half. I didn’t think we passed the ball as well as we normally have, and we gave a lot of balls away, but give credit to Washington for that.

“I’m proud of this team though. The best teams find a way to get results even when not playing their best, and I thought we did that tonight.”

Boston's three goals on the night, as well as the four combined goals by the two teams, are both season-highs for the young WPS season.

The Breakers are back on the road next weekend to take on the Chicago Red Stars on Saturday, April 25 (8:30 p.m. ET).  The Washington Freedom meanwhile travel to the Bay Area to face FC Gold Pride on Sunday, April 26 in a match that will be televised nationally on Fox Soccer Channel (6pm ET / 3pm PT).

Boxscore (All statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial.)