M. SOCCER RES V. LEHIGH: M. Soccer blasts Engineers 6-3

Want indications that the Penn men's soccer team should be much improved over last year's horrid 4-11 record? Well, how about a 6-3 romp over Lehigh yesterday at River Field in which the Quakers scored their highest number of goals in over a year. Or that Penn now is over the .500 mark (3-2) for the first time since the early part of 1990. Both would seem to be a sure sign that the Quakers are a team on the rise. Perhaps a surer sign is that Penn feels that it did not play nearly as well as it should have. The Quakers were able to force the issue offensively, due to smart execution on their part and inept defensive play by the overmatched Engineers (2-5-2). But the pervasive feeling on the team seemed to be that Penn should have scored closer to 10 goals. The resounding victory did not disguise the fact that the Quakers will have to avoid the missed opportunities that they experienced yesterday. "It was probably the worst game we've played all year," junior midfielder Brian Brown said. "It was no indication of how we can play. We weren't clicking today. We couldn't find an even tempo where everything was consistent. We were up, then down." Penn coach George O'Neill had wanted to capitalize on Lehigh's inexperience by attacking early and denying the Engineers any opportunity to gain confidence as the game wore on. He got his wish as Penn stormed the net right at the outset. Just over two minutes had elapsed when the ball came in from the wing and senior forward Kossouth Bradford headed it toward the net. The ball went to senior defenseman Christian Eidem, who was positioned near the back post. Eidem whacked the ball into the roof of the net to give the Quakers a 1-0 lead. All was not well for Penn in the first half, however. The Quakers missed several opportunities to score and perhaps put Lehigh away early. Midway through the half, Bradford received the ball in the center of the field no more than 10 yards away from the goal, but he was unable to put enough into the shot and it was an easy save for Lehigh goalie Chris Booth. Moments later, a breakdown in the Engineers' defense allowed sophomore Pat Larco a breakaway opportunity with no one but Booth standing in the way of a goal. But Larco was unable to even get a shot off. "We should have had the game won at halftime," Penn coach George O'Neill said. "Instead we missed easy shots and allowed it to get tough in the second half. It certainly wasn't one of our better performances. It wasn't pretty to watch." Penn was able to pad its lead going into the break. A throw-in by senior captain Mike Gomez near Lehigh's goal bounced off an Engineer and right to the waiting head of junior midfielder Michael Singleton. Singleton knocked the ball right by Booth to give the Quakers a 2-0 lead. "We took [the Engineers] lightly and played down to their level," Brown said. "At halftime we looked at ourselves and said we need to finish our opportunities or these guys can crawl right back into the game." It was Lehigh who first took advantage of an opportunity in the second half. A pretty feed gave Lehigh midfielder Earl Dennis a one-on-one opportunity with only Penn sophomore Greg Sexton between him and sophomore goalie Andrew Kralik. Dennis successfully dodged past Sexton and slid the ball right by Kralik with 34 minutes remaining. It did not take Penn long to strike back, however. Three minutes later Bradford was dribbling toward the goal looking for a shot when he was tripped up by a Lehigh defender. The referee found the tackle a bit too violent and awarded the Quakers a penalty shot. One result was a 3-1 lead for Penn as sophomore midfielder Steve Marcinkiewicz easily booted the ball home. The other result was a red card for the Lehigh coaching staff, who did not find the call to their liking. "I wouldn't have given a penalty kick there," O'Neill said. "I would have been annoyed if I were their coach, but we'll take everything we get." Perhaps the most crucial series of the game came moments later, starting with Kralik's lunging save of a blast by Lehigh midfielder Will Orben. The Quakers sent the ball back down the other way, where freshman forward Max Englehart sent the ball in to Brown. Brown played the ball off a defender, got it on the rebound, and knocked it past Booth, who was then pulled from the game. Lehigh came back with a goal with 20 minutes remaining, but goals by sophomore midfielder Pat Brannigan and Bradford iced the game for the Quakers. Lehigh forward Kevin Hazzard finished the scoring with 5:35 left to play. The second half was much more productive for Penn offensively, but on defense the performance was less than stellar. "To our credit we kept trying to play attacking soccer," O'Neill said. "We got the win and that's the main thing. We did score six goals, and we did it with good passing. "But our concentration was there only for spells. We were careless at times. And we're still giving away silly goals in the back. Those were definitely defensive lapses." Even though there were some Penn mistakes in the game, the bottom line is the Quakers came away with a win, bringing them within one win (after five games) of last year's total (in 15 games). "The only positive thing is we didn't play very well but we still came away with the win," junior defender Michael Leo said. "The difference between this year and last year is if we would have played like this last year we probably would have lost."