Explorers are easy prey for 4-3 M. Soccer

And you thought the Mets had a bad record. By beating up 5-1 on lowly La Salle, the Penn men's soccer team (4-3) helped the Explorers smooth their record out at a nice round number – 0-10-1. While it initially wasn't pretty, the game at La Salle turned out to be a highlight reel of sorts for the Quakers, who nudged above the .500 mark for the second time this season. La Salle, surprisingly, took an early lead on Dave Steinbach's goal after the Penn defense had pushed up. However, after finally waking up, the Quakers tied the game before halftime on a remarkable effort by sophomore forward Pat Larco and proceeded to rack up four impressive second-half goals. "Larco's goal – that was a shot," Penn coach George O'Neill said. "It was well-worth going to a soccer game to see that. It gave the whole team a lift." Larco, who had been pulled from the starting lineup, subbed into the game and made an immediate impact. Taking a pass at midfield from sophomore defenseman David Choi, Larco deftly dodged a quartet of helpless Explorer defenders and blasted the ball off the right post and into the net. "I don't know what happened," said an amazed Choi. "I just looked up and saw Pat at midfield, gave him the ball, and he just dribbled through a bunch of guys and hit a bomb." What was called the most spectacular Quaker goal of the season by several Penn players reversed whatever momentum La Salle had gathered. However, by halftime the Quakers found themselves in the midst of an unwanted situation – tied at half with a team you're supposed to handle with ease. "We weren't playing too well the first half," Penn senior captain Mike Gomez said. "Everyone got pumped up during halftime and basically said that we were better than them and that we were going to come out and beat them." And that's exactly what Penn did. Sophomore midfielder Steve Marcinkiewicz opened the second-half goalfest for the Quakers as he put one in from 25 yards off sophomore Mike Schmidt's pass. After Marcinkiewicz's goal, the domino effect kicked in, as Penn unleashed a relentless barrage of shots on goal, finishing with 20 on the afternoon to La Salle's five. Gomez scored on a header off a deflection for Penn's third goal, junior midfielder Brian Brown added one (he added two assists), and junior defenseman Mike Leo put the cherry on top as he scored his first goal as a Quaker (Leo transferred from Richmond). Leo's goal came off an indirect kick, as he rocketed a shot from outside the goalie box. This was a play that the Quakers had been practicing during the week. "It's good to see that things we worked on in practice came up in the game," O'Neill said. "Leo's goal shows that they were thinking out there." Out of the game comes a valuable lesson for the Quakers – that of overconfidence. Again Penn looked sloppy in the opening minutes of the game, suffering from an obvious lapse on the Explorers' goal. To their credit, the Quakers certainly stormed back and took control in dominating fashion. "We've got to learn that other teams aren't going to come out and just give us the game," Penn sophomore goalie Andrew Kralik said. "We've got to go out and prove that we are the better team." In the end, Penn proved to be just that. As for the Explorers, things can't get much worse.