Lafayette Leopards shut out M. Soccer

With 36:50 left to play in the first half, the Penn men's soccer team got on the board. It was the first time the goal-starved Quakers had done so since September 29, when they beat Temple, 1-0. Nevertheless, none of the 30-plus Penn fans in attendance cheered. The Rhodes Field scoreboard operators realized their mistake and corrected it, giving Lafayette credit for Leidy Klotz' team-leading fifth goal of the season. The Leopards (8-1) would add two more goals in the second half as they rolled to a 3-0 victory over host Penn. The Quakers, Lafayette's eighth shutout victim of the season, continued their scoring woes, failing to find the back of the net despite outshooting the Leopards, 18-11. "A loss is no longer acceptable when we outshoot a team like that. This is just horrible," Penn tri-captain Ralph Maier said. "Once again, we had multiple opportunities and we didn't finish." Finishing opportunities proved to be the difference in yesterday's contest. While the Quakers outplayed and outshot their opponent for most of the game, much like the team's 2-0 loss to Harvard Saturday, they came away with neither a goal nor a victory. The boys from Easton, Pa., however, took a page from the book of hometown-hero Larry Holmes yesterday, as Lafayette connected on all three of its scoring opportunities to knock out the Quakers. Comparing the Leopards' attack to one of a boxer may not be far from the truth. First-year Lafayette coach Tim Lenahan described his team as a hard-working one "not worried about style points." "I wore a hard hat and jeans all week to practice to emphasize that we're a blue-collar team that just has to work hard to be successful," said Lenahan, who applied for the Penn job given to Rudy Fuller last spring. "Penn played more attractive soccer than we did, but we butted it out and made the most of our opportunities." Meanwhile, Penn could not make the most out of a single opportunity. Following Saturday's Harvard game, Tom Hughes optimistically commented that Penn was "knocking on the door" and that "once we get one or two goals, they're all going to come." Following the loss to Lafayette, the Quakers were significantly more frustrated about the team's lack of finishing. "When you get 18 shots, you have to be able to put at least one in," Maier said. "We also have to be mentally prepared at the whistle. We didn't start playing until about 20 minutes in, after they scored." Lafayette's Klotz, open to the left of the goal, began the scoring at 7:11 into the game when he finished teammate Brad Dyer's crossing pass with an upper-left blast beyond the outstretched hands of a diving Mike O'Connor. Only then did the Quakers snap out of their funk, turning on the pressure for the remainder of the half in one of their most aggressive displays of offense this season. If not for the outstanding goalkeeping of Lafayette sophomore Craig Schroeder, who made six saves in the half, Penn might have found that drought-ending goal. "We shouldn't wait to get smacked in the face before we start playing," Penn coach Rudy Fuller said. "We were all over them after that [goal]." The Quakers finished the half with a 12-5 edge in the shots category and an eagerness to reattack in the second half. "The guys thought, as well as I did, that they were going to go out in the second half and play as well," Fuller said. "You don't expect to be down 1-0 when you outshoot them, 12-5." The second-half answer came not from Penn, though, but from Lafayette, as the Leopards put the game out of reach at the 68:20 mark. A foul on Penn defender Tom Hughes set up a free kick just outside the 18. Forward Jake Ross took the feed from teammate Dan Hughes and threaded a shot past the Penn wall and into the goal. "I thought it was a poor call. Tommy Hughes and the other guy were battling for the ball, going at it neck and neck," Fuller said. "You really can't call it on either one because they were both doing the same thing." Lafayette eliminated any doubt about its second goal, however, when Klotz pumped in another goal, his sixth of the season, with 56 seconds left in the game. "In the second half, we came out and really stepped it up," Klotz said. "When we scored? it just kind of broke their spirit." Not every Quaker, though, felt like his team's spirit was broken or that this game was more frustrating than the previous seven. "With a 1-7 season, you have to hang onto the positives. We're playing well and it's starting to come together," Penn midfielder Jason Karageorge said. "We're doing everything we can and hopefully it's going to start paying off in goals." For the Quakers, those goals cannot come soon enough. The team's next opportunity to snap out of this 261-minute scoreless streak, and to improve on the year's 0.38 goals per game average comes at home Saturday, when Penn hosts Columbia.