M. Soccer attains first win of O'Neill era at Villanova, 4-1

There was none of the despised artificial turf that the Penn men's soccer team had to endure in its season-opening 2-0 loss to St. Joseph's in sight. There was a weak Villanova team that had dropped games to Lafayette and Drexel. Most importantly, there was a Penn squad that turned in a much-improved performance in its second game – a performance that featured the best offensive output the Quakers have enjoyed since the early part of last season. All of these factors combined to give the Quakers a 4-1 whipping of Villanova, a .500 record (1-1), and the first victory for new Penn coach George O'Neill. "Today looked like a great step in the right direction," O'Neill said. "The important thing is getting them to understand the way I want them to play the game. All coaches put their own approach in. We had it going for quite a while where we were getting the ball under control and looking good." Even though sophomore forward Pat Larco gave the Quakers their first goal of the O'Neill era, Penn did not have too much to celebrate during the halftime break. A mental breakdown, remeniscent of those which hounded the Quakers against St. Joseph's, allowed Villanova to tie the game at 1-1 shortly before the end of the half. The second half, however, provided a marked contrast to the St. Joseph's game, as the heretofore stalled Penn offense started turning opportunities into goals. The Quakers scored three times to cruise to victory, starting with two goals by freshman forward Tim Reusche. Reusche first took a pretty cross pass from sophomore Steve Marcinkiewicz and booted the ball into the net. The Wildcats seemed to run out of energy following that goal, and Reusche was able to take a pass from Larco, dribble right around two Villanova defenders and score to give Penn a 3-1 advantage. Reusche gave part of the credit for his goals to the midfield. "The midfield played real well so the forwards had a lot more opportunities [than against St. Joseph's] and a lot better balls to work with." Sophomore Pat Brannigan's goal iced the game and finished a very productive afternoon for the offense. "Last time we had a couple of mental breakdowns," O'Neill said. "For the most part today we shut that down. On the attacking side we got the shots and were concentrating even more than we have been. [The players] came out and won the game today." As the offense racked up the points, the defense did its job effectively. Aside from the one lapse that allowed the Wildcats to score, the defense was able to keep Villanova at bay, minimize its scoring chances and keep the ball down on the other end of the field for the majority of the time. "It was a good effort by everybody," senior captain Mike Gomez said. "We played pretty well. There is room for improvement, but we played well." "This game was what we're looking for," O'Neill said. "If we approach each game the way we did today and keep getting the ball to different people, we'll always be in any game. We need to approach it one game at a time and make as few mental mistakes [as today], then we'll do well over the long haul."

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