They're on the board: M. Soccer wins first

The Penn men's soccer team finally notched its first victory with a 1-0 defeat against Temple yesterday at Rhodes Field. and Andrew McLaughlin Good things come to those who wait. After losing four of their first five games by one goal, the Penn men's soccer team finally turned the tables with its first victory of the '98 season yesterday afternoon, 1-0 over Temple. The Quakers (1-5, 0-2 Ivy League) went into their first home match against the Owls (1-6-1) with high hopes, and this time -- unlike the previous five -- they did not come away empty-handed. Quakers junior striker Reggie Brown knocked home a cross from senior tri-captain Jared Boggs in the ninth minute for the only goal that the team would need on the day. "Jared [Boggs] was coming down the line, and I knew he was going to serve it up, so I moved in," Brown said. "He kicked a hard line drive, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time." While the Quakers offense broke through for its first goal in over 180 minutes of play, the real star of this game was junior keeper Michael O'Connor. "Michael O'Connor was spectacular in the net for us," Quakers head coach Rudy Fuller said. The tri-captain recorded nine saves, including a crucial sliding block on an attempt by Owls senior Ray Destephanis with under five minutes to play. The solid play of the Quakers' back line took a lot of pressure off the team's offense, which in turn stepped up to take 18 shots on the day. This was a major improvement from the Quakers meager seven-shot output in last Saturday's 1-0 defeat at the hands of Cornell. Junior midfielder David Bonder led a balanced Red and Blue attack with four shots on goal. A total of 10 Quakers, including two freshmen, were able to direct at least one ball toward Temple keeper Phil Pizzano. Still, the team's offensive performance yesterday left something to be desired. "No, I don't think that it was our sharpest game," Fuller said. "I thought we scored a good goal, but I don't think [the offense] was sharp for 90 minutes." Coming into yesterday, Temple had a minus-16 goal differential, and was by far the least highly touted opponent that Penn has faced thus far. But the Owls put forth a scrappy, physical effort in defeat. "They're a hard-working team, a bit chippy, but we didn't move the ball around quick enough," Fuller said. "If you move it around, the physical play doesn't matter because they can't keep up with you." Temple emerged fired-up for the second half, and played a very physical final 45 minutes. This style of play contributed to the Quakers receiving two yellow cards, one each by Jason Karageorge and Henry Chen, and committing 21 fouls to 18 for the undersized Temple squad. "Sometimes when you play a blue-collar team that's not as skillful as some others, you tend to play down to their level," O'Connor said. "I think it was in our end [in the second half] a little too much for my sanity." The last 20 minutes of the game were marked by an abundance of quality chances for the underdog Owls. O'Connor and the rest of the Quakers defense truly earned their first shutout of the season with tenacious marking as the game clock wound down. "I was hoping that we could close the door a little earlier -- [but] I don't think we ever really did close that door," Fuller said. With this win, the Quakers gained sorely needed momentum heading into this Saturday's match with Ivy rival Harvard. "We needed to get the first win on the board, especially with a game like Harvard this weekend," Fuller said. "We have a good test on Saturday, and we've got a good shot at it." Despite the win, the team, however, realizes that they have to be less tolerant of sloppy play against the Crimson. "The speed of the game was off at times. Some of our passing was off at times. We lost some of our sharpness at times," Boggs said. "We can't do [any of] that against Harvard or we'll get punished for it."