  The structure of $^{35}$P was studied with a one-proton knockout reaction
at88~MeV/u from a $^{36}$S projectile beam at NSCL. The $\gamma$ rays from
thedepopulation of excited states in $^{35}$P were detected with GRETINA,
whilethe $^{35}$P nuclei were identified event-by-event in the focal plane of
theS800 spectrograph. The level scheme of $^{35}$P was deduced up to 7.5 MeV
using$\gamma-\gamma$ coincidences. The observed levels were attributed to
protonremovals from the $sd$-shell and also from the deeply-bound $p\_{1/2}$
orbital.The orbital angular momentum of each state was derived from the
comparisonbetween experimental and calculated shapes of individual
($\gamma$-gated)parallel momentum distributions. Despite the use of different
reactions andtheir associate models, spectroscopic factors, $C^2S$, derived
from the$^{36}$S $(-1p)$ knockout reaction agree with those obtained earlier
from$^{36}$S($d$,\nuc{3}{He}) transfer, if a reduction factor $R\_s$, as
deducedfrom inclusive one-nucleon removal cross sections, is applied to the
knockout transitions.In addition to the expected proton-hole configurations,
other states were observedwith individual cross sections of the order of
0.5~mb. Based on their shiftedparallel momentum distributions, their decay
modes to negative parity states,their high excitation energy (around 4.7~MeV)
and the fact that they were notobserved in the ($d$,\nuc{3}{He}) reaction, we
propose that they may resultfrom a two-step mechanism or a nucleon-exchange
reaction with subsequent neutronevaporation. Regardless of the mechanism, that
could not yet be clarified, thesestates likely correspond to neutron core
excitations in \nuc{35}{P}. Thisnewly-identified pathway, although weak, offers
the possibility to selectivelypopulate certain intruder configurations that are
otherwise hard to produceand identify.
