Brown drowns M. Soccer at Rhodes Field

When Penn fell 2-0 to Brown Saturday afternoon, the fog over Rhodes Field concealed ghosts of soccer games past. The Quakers were trying not to remember what happened last season. A year ago Penn traveled to Providence to take on Brown, then the No. 16 squad in the country. In a nightmare game under the lights, Penn was demolished by the Bears, allowing nine goals without scoring any. "It's definitely something we remembered," Penn goalie Andrew Kralik said. "It shouldn't have happened last year, and we made sure it didn't happen again." Though Penn was shut out again this year, the Quakers (3-7-1, 1-3 Ivy League) felt they were in the game throughout. The team felt its performance was something to be proud of. Penn held its own with a Brown team (10-0, 5-0) that is currently the only unbeaten and untied Division I program. "By no means were they that much better than us," forward Mike Schmidt said. "Everybody's heads were in the game. We went out hard and put in our best effort. We can be proud of that. Unfortunately, it just wasn't our day." With rain falling on-and-off throughout the contest, one sideline was buried by mud and the other was obscured by a shoetop-deep puddle. Playbooks became almost unnecessary, as most finesse moves had to be scrapped due to the slick grass. Even ordinary passes were treacherous and the footing was uncertain at best. "It does no good to complain about the field conditions," Penn coach George O'Neill said. "The weather was not a factor. We would have done the same thing had the field been perfectly dry." The Quakers were not as lucky as Brown. Neither a bullet by midfielder Brendan Sullivan from 40 yards out nor a nudge from just outside the goal managed to get past Brown goalkeeper Tim Webb. Penn's shots deflected across the goal mouth on three separate opportunities. Within 30 seconds in the first half, the Quakers managed to stick a header in the mud to the right of the Brown goal. "Brown is on a great run, and teams that get on runs like that usually find a way to win," O'Neill said. "We just couldn't get the break we needed to turn things around." The first Brown goal was controversial. Midfielder Aaron Fernandes beat Penn defender Brad Copeland, passing the ball to forward Gary Hughes. Hughes darted right, past Kralik, and shot left. Penn defender Alan Waxman, skidding on the grass, was just a step slow. The Brown players appeared to be offsides, but the call was not made. And the ball slid into the Penn net. Kralik was screened on Brown's second goal, a sliding shot by midfielder John Beck into the right corner of the net. "I give Brown a lot of credit," Kralik said. "They work really hard. They force you to make good plays to stop them." "We gave it our all. They're undefeated and first in the League and we gave them everything they could handle. It just proves we can come out here and play with the best."