The Boston Breakers won their first home game of the season and put together their first win streak of 2010 Sunday in a come from behind 3-1 win over the Atlanta Beat.

Johanna Rasmussen put Atlanta ahead in just the seventh minute when she finished a pass from Eniola Aluko to make it 1-0 Beat.  Rasmussen and Aluko found themselves in behind the Boston defense and two-on-one with Breakers goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.  Aluko played the ball to Rasmussen from the right side of the field and Rasmussen calmly slotted the ball into the open net.

The 1-0 advantage for Atlanta would stand going into halftime, but Boston would change that very quickly.  In the 49th minute, Jordan Angeli scored her second goal of the season when she volleyed a Leslie Osborne cross into the back of the net to equalize for Boston.

Just four minutes later, Lindsay Tarpley's flick-on header eventually fell to Kelly Smith, who slammed the ball into the back of the net to give Boston the lead.  Then, just one minute later in the 54th minute, Osborne's pass found Liz Bogus, who finished into the back of the net to give Boston a 3-1 lead in the quickest succession of three goals from a team in WPS history (five minutes).  Boston would hold onto the 3-1 win to the delight of over 4,000 faithfuls at Harvard Stadium.

"It’s a relief, really pleased with everyone involved tonight," Smith said.  "We really deserved it after a poor first half performance by us, we really came back after half time.   We put pressure on the players and got the first step to the ball, which we didn’t do in the first half.  We played a great 20 minutes for us to get 3 goals."

Boston (3-5-4, 13 pts.) managed to stay ahead of Atlanta (1-7-4, 7 pts.) with the win in this critical six point clash at the bottom of the table.  For Atlanta Beat Head Coach Gareth O'Sullivan, it is another disappointing result.

"At half time we just said let’s go try and get a second goal and it’s important to get the second goal and put this thing away," O'Sullivan said.  "We had a lot of opportunities in the first half to get the second goal.  And amazingly enough we set the focus on our clearances and make sure they were long and high and they weren’t.  It was a crazy 6 or 7 minutes when we gave up the 3.  It’s difficult to swallow, difficult to fathom, but we’ll go back and watch the tape and then won’t comment too much on it, it’s definitely something that shouldn’t happen."

Meanwhile, the Breakers look at the positives as they build toward another home match next Sunday against the Washington Freedom.

"The good thing is that goals are starting to come," Breakers Head Coach Tony DiCicco said.  "We’ve had in the last two games two players that haven’t scored.  Cheney got her second goal, Kelly got her fourth and Jordan got another goal, her second, so I mean, goals make a lot of difference."

BOXSCORE

Boston Breakers (3-5-4) vs. Atlanta Beat (1-7-4)
Sunday, July 11, 2010 — Harvard Stadium
FINAL

SCORING SUMMARY:

ATL: Johanna Rasmussen 2 (Eniola Aluko) 7'
BOS: Jordan Angeli 2 (Leslie Osborne) 49'
BOS: Kelly Smith 4 (Lindsay Tarpley) 53'
BOS: Liz Bogus 1 (Leslie Osborne) 54'

BOSTON BREAKERS — Alyssa Naeher, Alex Scott, Kasey Moore, Ifeoma Dieke, Taryn Hemmings, Fabiana, Leslie Osborne, Laura del Rio (Jordan Angeli, 46'), Lindsay Tarpley, Kelly Smith, Liz Bogus

Substitutes Not Used: Tiffany Weimer, Chioma Igwe, Allison Lipsher, Ashley Phillips

ATLANTA BEAT — Brett Maron, Katie Larkin (McCall Zerboni, 70'), Stacy Bishop, Rebecca Nolin, Leigh Ann Robinson, Angie Kerr, Carolyn Blank (Amanda Cinalli, 72'), Aya Miyama, Eniola Aluko, Johanna Rasmussen, Mami Yamaguchi (Lauren Sesselmann, 84')

Substitutes Not Used: Malori Lofton-Malachi

TEAM STATS:

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY:
BOS: Alex Scott (Caution) 90+

Referee: Donald Dellavia
Referee Assistants: Miguel Panduro, Mark Allatin
4th Official: Veronica Brito
Attendance: N/A