Despite capturing its earliest lead of the season with a goal in the first minute of play, the women's soccer team suffered one of the most lopsided defeats in school history against Bowdoin College Thursday.Forward Melissa Gorenkoff '10 gave Brandeis a 1-0 lead just 55 seconds into the game, but it was all downhill from there, as Bowdoin tied the game just 12 minutes later and proceeded to score seven goals in the second half to defeat the Judges 8-1 Thursday. Brandeis fell to 7-5-2 with just four games remaining in the regular season.

"Mentally, [Bowdoin] was more into the game than we were," rookie midfielder Sofia Vallone '11 said. "They didn't let the fact that we scored so early affect their game."

The game couldn't have started better for the Judges. Defender Taryn Martiniello '11 joined the offensive attack and fed Gorenkoff, who sent the ball to the lower left part of the goal past junior goalkeeper Kelly Thomas to give Brandeis a 1-0 lead in the first minute. It was the first time the Judges had scored within the first 12 minutes of a game all season.

Following that goal, however, the Judges couldn't maintain their momentum.

"We started off, we had a great play-Melissa got her goal in the first minute, but then I think we couldn't connect our passes, and we weren't marking up correctly," Vallone said.

Bowdoin outshot Brandeis 5-1 in the 12 minutes following Gorenkoff's goal, eventually capitalizing in the 13th minute. Rookie forward Rebecca Silva scored when goalie Hillary Rosenzweig '10 couldn't reach her low ground shot from the top of the goalie box.

"I thought Hillary did well, but I think the first goal was a little more saveable," coach Denise Dallamora said. "She didn't get the angle down. She fought hard to save it, but I don't know she did the best job she could have to save it,"

Less than a minute after Silva's goal, Brandeis suffered the first of its four offside calls during the first half. The Judges finished the day with nine offside penalties, while the Polar Bears didn't have any.

"That game was the worst [in terms of offside penalties]," forward Tiffany Pacheco '11 said. "The line pulled up very quickly and we weren't coming back fast enough, so we got caught."

Despite being called offsides two more times in the first four minutes of the second half, the Judges nearly took the lead in the 54th minute.

Gorenkoff had a breakaway opportunity, but Thomas took the ball off her feet.

Bowdoin took a 2-1 lead eight minutes later on its fifth of seven corner kicks.

Senior forward Ann Zeigler sent the ball to sophomore defender Larkin Brown, who nailed a far post shot just underneath the crossbar.

"The second goal was an amazing, far post shot that no keeper could have gotten," Vallone said. "I think that they got their momentum from there, and we just continued to drop."

Zeigler added an insurance goal just 50 seconds later on a misplayed pass from defender Meredith Milstein '09 to fellow defender Abby Shields '10.

"We made some mistakes on defense and that's how they scored the goals, but our offense wasn't doing the job either so it was a combination of the two," Dallamora said.

Rosenzweig, who had allowed an average of just 1.26 goals coming into the game, relinquished Bowdoin's fourth goal less than three minutes later, at which point Dallamora pulled her in favor of last year's starter, Betsey Medow '08.

In her first action of the season, Medow surrendered four additional goals, more than she or Rosenzweig gave up in any game last season.

Vallone said the entire team shouldered the blame for this blowout loss.

"It's nobody's fault, it's just how the game worked out," she said. "[Still], it's hard to get through 11 players eight times, so it's a reflection of our team."

The Judges will try to bounce back on the road against Roger Williams College today at 3 p.m., and also have University Athletic Association road games against Emory University Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Carnegie Mellon University Sunday at 1:30 p.m.