M. Soccer scores a pair while blanking LaSalle

The Quakers' fourth win of 1997 also marked the third time the Penn defense has shut out its opponent. The secret to winning for the Penn men's soccer team is really no secret at all. All the Quakers need to do consistently is shut out the opposition. As basic as it may sound, three of Penn's four wins have come when the opposition has been unable to score. The only problem is that the team has come out on the losing end of eight of the nine games when it has allowed goals. Is the defense to be blamed for this? According to junior midfielder Jared Boggs, "we can't lay the blame on any one side. Both the offense and defense have had lapses. We lost [some games] before and we can't worry about it now." The defense certainly cannot be blamed for its 2-0 shutout of St. Joseph's team at the neutral site of United German Hungarian Field. The win was no surprise, since Penn is "a much better team than they are," according to Quakers goalkeeper Mike O'Connor. The defense did not merely do its job and nothing more in shutting out weaker opposition. Freshman defender Austin Deng rose to the occasion last night and even though he is not a regular starter, teammates felt he was "confident and confident." Anchor defenseman Ted Lehman "dominated anything in the air near the 18-yard box," said center half Reggie Brown. After suffering its worst defeat of the season, a 3-0 loss at Columbia last Saturday, the defense pitched its second shutout in seven days. Prior to the game, Penn coach O'Neill was concerned with stopping Aleksander Peev, who has scored more than half of St. Joseph's goals to date. Penn, which got out to an early lead on a classic turn and shot by Steve Cohen in the 15th minute, never looked back. After Cohen's curling, low shot found the bottom left corner of the net, Penn continued with its strategy of "pressuring the Hawks' fullbacks early" and "dominating the rest of the first half," said Brown and teammate Jason Karageorge, respectively. Penn's second goal was a superb solo effort by Morgan Blackwell 15 minutes from time. "Morgan stepped up today," said Karageorge. "Morgan's goal took some pressure off our defense," Brown said. "But they did come back strongly in the last 20 minutes." After being shut out five times this season, a 2-0 win may seem like an offensive explosion, but the Quakers had no concrete strategy going into last night's game. "We had an excellent team meeting on Sunday, which put the season into perspective," Karageorge said. "I know everyone on the team believes that we can win all our remaining games and achieve our goal of a .500 season. We went in more relaxed and looking to have fun yesterday." If fun is winning, then the Quakers thoroughly enjoyed themselves against the Hawks. Despite several complaints about "crummy, bumpy field conditions," the Quakers defense was able to adjust better than that of the Hawks. The United German Hungarian Field, the venue of last night's contest, is only the first stop for Penn on the road to a .500 season. The next test comes on Saturday at home against the 5-5 Brown Bears, which are coming off a 2-1 overtime victory over Princeton last Saturday. Under the team's current mindset, which O'Connor said is "to take it game by game," it would appear that the next stop on the .500 train is right here in West Philly.