Through the first two weeks of the season Penn State field hockey coach Char Morett has been patiently waiting for some of her younger players to take charge and step up their play.

In last night's 4-0 victory over Temple (3-4), she might have found them.

Youth was the theme of the night for the No. 19 Nittany Lions (2-4) as redshirt freshman Shaun Banta, sophomore Annelise Legel and freshman Kiersten Wood played key roles in the team's victory.

Banta was clearly the difference-maker in the game. Coming off of the bench she was a major spark and scored two goals.

"Shaun has a knack for scoring," Morett said. "She's got a lot of savvy around the cage, she's dangerous [there]."

The speedy forward narrowly missed the ever-elusive hat trick on several occasions. Ten minutes into the second half, she had two 1-on-1 battles with Temple goalie Erin Conroy but came up short.

For the Lions, who have had their share of struggles scoring this season, Banta's breakout game couldn't have come at a better time. Her two goals yesterday equaled the team's total through the first three games of the year, and her three goals on the year are a third of the team's total goals.

Morett, obviously thrilled with Banta's play, shouted with enthusiasm and high-fived the freshman after taking her out of the game with 10 minutes left in the second half.

"Probably out of the 23 chances [that the team had] she had 10 of them," Morett said.

When asked about her performance, Banta was humble and unconcerned about her own accomplishments. Instead, she focused on the play of the team as a whole.

"Hopefully we can keep on winning," she said. "We play on Friday again and then on Sunday, hopefully it's good from here on out."

Banta was helped by the play of Legel, a fellow forward. The two were quite the tandem as Legel, a 5-foot-11 forward out of Morgantown, Pa., assisted on Banta's first goal and added a goal of her own late in the game.

"I thought Annelise and Shaun worked well together," Morett said.

True freshman Kiersten Wood was another youngster who gave Temple fits all game. She deflected a Natalie Berrena shot in the second half for her second goal of the season.

"Kiersten just gets more confident every day as a freshman," Morett said. "The forwards did a really good job, Kiersten Wood [especially], of getting the ball down and across the endline."

After losing six starters and three All-Americans from last year's squad, Morett probably hopes that yesterday's game was a sign of things to come for the team's future.

And that future for the three youngsters is coming sooner than they might have originally planned, as the Lions' Big Ten opener against Ohio State is only nine days away.