Sophomore Mariah Pewarski scored the third Crimson tally of the game against Penn on Saturday. Harvard scored four unanswered goals before Penn responded with a second-half penalty that proved futile.

In its first Ivy home game at Jordan Field on Saturday, Harvard (3-3, 1-1 Ivy) got off to a hot start in the second half to bury Penn (1-6, 1-1), 4-1, and pick up its first league win of the season.

“It was a great team effort,” Crimson coach Sue Caples said. “People were able to contribute in a lot of ways, which is really very exciting. We have a lot of depth, and we were able to use that. We are six games in now, and we are starting to really gel with each other.”

The Crimson dominated time of possession from the start en route to numerous scoring opportunities, including a backhanded shot from co-captain Carly Dickson that the Quakers’ senior goalie Kieran Sweeney had to stop with a jumping save.

The home team finally scored when freshman Caitlin Rea faked out her defenders before finding freshman Noel Painter, who deflected the ball into the goal to give the Crimson a 1-0 lead 14 minutes into the game.

But Harvard was unable to stretch the lead despite a 12-3 shot advantage in the half.

Caples admitted that being up by just one goal in a game like this can put you on edge.

“It’s a funny game,” Caples said. “You can dominate, dominate, and it takes one to go down [when you have a one-goal lead]. We had a lot of opportunities in the first half, we would have liked to have had more to show for it.”

In order to better take advantage of its scoring opportunities, the Crimson had to make some adjustments at halftime.

“Sometimes we were just a little too stationary in the [defense],” sophomore Bridget McGillivray said. “We needed to manipulate the defenders more, move them around, and throw them off.”

Harvard obtained much more to show for its effort very early in the second half.

Just 1:14 into the second period, Dickson scored off a penalty stroke, placing the ball perfectly in the top left corner of the goal.

A little over a minute later, the Crimson added to its 2-0 lead when sophomore Mariah Pewarski scored off an assist from Dickson.

It did not take long for Harvard to strike again.

About two and a half minutes later, Bridget McGillivray redirected a pass from her sister, co-captain Georgia McGillivray, after a corner.

“It was from my sister again,” the sophomore said. “She swept it in far post, and I was just there waiting for it.”