M. Soccer ties 'Nova

The Penn men's soccer team continued its attempt to come out of the 0-3 rut it put itself in at the beginning of the season Saturday against Villanova. The Quakers hoped to continue the momentum from last weekend's come-from-behind victory over La Salle. The match went back and forth until finally, after two overtime periods and some controversy, neither team could claim victory and the Quakers (1-3-1) had their first tie of the season. Penn began the scoring early, with Brendan Sullivan stealing a Wildcats pass deep in Villanova territory and knocking in the Quakers' first first-half goal of the year. Sullivan, whose father, Larry, is the Villanova coach, was happy to show up his dad. "It felt really good," said Sullivan. "I turned to rub it in, but he said, 'Hey, it's a great goal son.' It ruined the moment." Penn controlled the rest of the half. Its shot advantage (7-6) was slight, but few Wildcats shots had a realistic chance of scoring. "We started off very well. We scored," said Penn coach George O'Neill. "I thought we'd score a couple more, but we didn't. We kept plugging away." In the second half, Villanova played more aggressively, claiming a 10-7 shot advantage. With 28 minutes left, Villanova's Jon Correll was dribbling down the left side with just junior Alan Waxman between him and goalie Andrew Kralik. After several attempts to fight Correll for the ball, Waxman went down on the wet Rhodes Field. Correll then beat the diving Kralik on a crossing shot to tie the match at 1-1. Villanova kept the pressure on with several hard shots, but Kralik wouldn't let any get past him, with two leaping saves with 15:18, and 13:30 left. "When the games get tight, things get tight and people get pumped," said Kralik. "I was just doing my job." With 5:52 remaining, Waxman once again was in a one on one situation with a Wildcats forward. This time he was able to redeem himself with a slide into the ball and then a long kick clearing it. The match was sent into overtime tied at 1. No team was able get the ball past the other's goalie until 6:05 remained. A Villanova forward shot the ball to the right of the diving Kralik. Everyone watched knowing nothing but the left goalpost could stop the ball's forward progression. Fortunately for the Quakers, the ball knocked into the goalpost and was eventually cleared, sending the game into a second and final overtime period. With 7:24 to go, co-captain Steve Marcinkiewicz once again came through for the Quakers. He received a pass from sophomore Jared Boggs and blasted a shot past Wildcats goalie Aleko Zeppos. It was his fifth goal out of eight total for the Quakers this season. Boggs also fed Marcinkiewicz with the winning assist with four minutes in Penn's last game against Cornell. This time the goal would not be enough, and the lead didn't last one minute due to the most controversial call of the season. After a Villanova corner kick, the ball was sent away from the Quakers' goal. Villanova then sent the ball back over everyone, including the Penn defense, where only Villanova's Lewis Domke stood. He then headed the ball past Kralik for the tie. O'Neill said the call was "horrendous." Kralik agreed. "He was definitely a good three or four yards off-sides. The ref seemed to be in position," Kralik said. "I don't know why he didn't call it, or if he didn't have the guts." The Quakers last opportunity came when Marcinkiewicz received a pass from Sullivan with 20 seconds left, but Zappas was able to stop the shot, and the game ended in a tie. There was one person who was thrilled with the finish. "My mom's probably happy with the result," Sullivan said.