As Penn State's game against Princeton University loomed last night, the Nittany Lions plan was simple: attack them from the right side.

At AstroTurf Field, the No. 7 Lions (4-2) scored three goals, all from the right side, to defeat the Tigers, 3-2.

Throughout the game, the right side of Penn State's formation was obviously its strong point.

"Char stressed to obviously understand and follow the goals and keep that in mind when we're playing," junior Shaun Banta said. "One of the goals was to attack from [that] side, and we scored all three of our goals from attacking on the right side."

Banta was an essential part of that dominant side, netting a goal just seven minutes into the first half and adding an assist at the end of the half on a goal by junior Natalie Blasco -- her first of two on the night.

Throughout the game, Banta ran up the right flank, creating optimum scoring opportunities for the Penn State offense.

The Lions went into the second half with a 2-0 lead, but maybe with a little too much confidence. Princeton was able to switch the momentum quickly and evened the score with two goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half.

"When you have a 2-0 lead, you start to skate a little bit," Penn State coach Char Morett said. "You stray from where you need to be and putting the team away. Princeton is a good team, and they're skilled. I think they finally got into their game in the second half."

The Lions answered Princeton's two goals with their third goal of the game. Blasco netted the eventual game winner.

"I thought we came out strong," Banta said. "In the second half, we had a little bit of a let down when they scored both of the goals, but we came back hard and kept our momentum going forward and were able to come out with a win."

Last night's game against Princeton ends Penn State's tough opening stretch to its 2006 season. Princeton marked the Lions' sixth game in 11 days. With its next game scheduled a week from Friday against Lafayette, Penn State will use practice to hone its passing and communication skills.

Penn State has set a lot of goals, showing it's already efficient at executing a gameplan.

The players remain confident that they are doing well at working through whatever problems may come up at games or practices. Right now, Penn State is working on maintaining this momentum it is slowly gaining from game to game.

"We can't lose at home again," Banta said. "We lost two at home, and we're not going to again. We're going to keep this streak going."