Box Score With piles of snow surrounding the cleared field it was only fitting the John Carroll University women's soccer team took on the Ohio Northern Polar Bears on Friday night inside Don Shula Stadium.

Armed with a pair of 1-0 wins over Mount Union and Baldwin Wallace to knock the Purple Raiders and Yellow Jackets off the top perch in the conference, John Carroll took care of Ohio Northern 3-0 to move into a tie with the Polar Bears for the top spot in the OAC. JCU and ONU do have a quartet of teams breathing down their necks just one-half game back.

John Carroll had previously never beaten Ohio Northern by more than two goals. The Blue Streaks took care of the seventh-ranked regionally Polar Bears to avenge a loss in the 2012 OAC Championship match and improve to 8-6-3, 5-2-0 OAC with just two regular-season contests remaining.

Preston Mendel sent a corner kick towards the net in the 11th minute. The corner grazed off of the post and ricocheted in for the game's first score. The red-hot Mendel has scored in three straight games .

The corner kick paid dividends once again in the 39th minute. Kyla Sofo sailed the corner towards the net and found a leaping Kristen Profeta who buried the header into the upper right corner of the net.

"We set plays and it's where a lot of goals are scored," said head coach Michael Marich. "We've done well finishing some of those this year. Kristen scored another one which is really exciting for us."

The Blue Streaks poured it on to start the second half with the third goal of the game in the 48th minute to chase ONU starting goalkeeper Emily Brodict from the match. Kay Akerly maintained possession stopping, dribbling and reversing direction before finding the lower left corner of the net for her sixth goal of the season.

The women also had a prime opportunity when Mendel swiped a failed ONU clear attempt in the 33rd minute and found Akerly who nearly made it 2-0 but a leaping Brodict was able to extend just enough to punch the ball over the crossbar.

Ohio Northern outshot John Carroll 21-11 but Haley McDonald was up to the test all night finishing with 10 saves for her fifth-straight shutout. The junior punched two shots over the net in the second half to improve her scoreless streak to 451 minutes.

"This is one of the best games Haley's played all year for us," said Marich. "She's been big for us, stepping up to where she left off last year."

The women's soccer team will be back in action at Heidelberg at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 30.