St. Bonifacius, Minn. – The Crown women's soccer team responded swiftly after going behind 1-0 in the early moments of their conference matchup with North Central on Thursday, scoring two first half goals and adding two more in the second half to earn a 4-2 win.  Most importantly, the Polars earned three points, moving them to 14 for the season and extending their lead over Minnesota Morris for the fourth and final playoff spot.

After a well-worked corner routine led to the opening goal for the Rams, Crown responded quickly, scoring less than three minutes later on a corner kick of their own.

Ellie Schanbacher's service was excellent and Ella Hollander arrived at the perfect moment, finding the top corner with an expertly placed header to level things up for the home team.

Crown scored again within three minutes as Lexi Shreve cut in from the left wing and played Emma Domka in behind the Rams defense and the Crown forward made no mistake with her finish, finding the side netting inside the far post to give the Polars the 2-1 lead inside of 11 minutes. 

Crown would dominate the rest of the first half, but were unable to add to their lead.  The Polars held a 14-1 advantage in shots after the first forty-five, but only the 2-1 lead on the scoreboard.

The second half began much the same way the first half ended, Crown controlled the tempo and possession, with the majority of the game being played in the Ram's half of the field.  It took nearly 25 minutes for Crown to finally break through for their third.

The third goal, and eventual game-winner, was scored by Abigail Shull after Shreve evaded her defender and played a dangerous ball across the box.  Ashley Pierce couldn't reach the cross, but the ball fell to the late-arriving Shull who hit her left-footed shot back across goal and inside the far post.

It looked like the question would be how many goals Crown could add, but it was the Rams who scored next and set up some late drama.  NCU's goal-scorer, Kara Lewis, was played in by Anna Deichert and produced an excellent finish under a challenge from Crown's Aletheia Fisher just inside the far post. 

North Central, with only four shots in the match, had now scored on two of them and there was a one-goal game with just under a quarter of an hour to play. 
Again, Crown showed great nerve, responding quickly with their fourth to put the game away.

Domka found space on the right wing and fired in a driven cross that got away from the NCU keeper and Pierce got goal-side of her defender and ran through the ball, finishing from less than a yard out with her shoulder to seal the win.

Crown outshot the Rams 31-4 for the game, with the win putting the Polars five points clear of Morris with five matches to play. 
The next one will be another big one, with Northwestern coming to town on Saturday with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m.