M. Soccer tries for Ivy win No. 1

If patience is a virtue, then the Penn men's soccer team must be drowning in it. Exactly 1/2 of the 1998 season has past and the Quakers have chalked up just one victory. Though they have consistently turned in competitive performances, the Red and Blue have had more than their share of problems trying to convert scoring opportunities into goals. Yet rather than grow frustrated, the members of the team have remained optimistic and patient that eventually the goals will start pouring in. Penn (1-7, 0-3 Ivy League) hopes that the pot of goals at the end of this eight-game rainbow will turn up this Saturday when it hosts Columbia (3-3-1, 1-0) at 1:30 p.m. at Rhodes Field. "Our team has a lot of talent up front and we're just waiting for a break-out game," midfielder and defender Henry Chen said. "Hopefully it will come soon." In 720 minutes of soccer action, Penn has unleashed 81 shots. Three of those balls have found the back of the net. On Wednesday, the Quakers fired a season-high 20 shots. Unable to convert on any of those shots, Penn's woes continued as the team fell to Lafayette 3-0. The Quakers were shut out for the fifth time this year while the team's scoreless streak extended to 234 minutes. "We've just been incredibly unlucky not to get some goals," Penn coach Rudy Fuller said. "It's not even that we're not finishing anymore. Any time you get 20 shots in a game, you have to be happy." For Fuller and his hard-working Penn squad to even mention the word "luck" is a big step. Earlier in the season, the Quakers insisted that ball movement and persistence, not luck, would eventually pay off on the scoreboard. In the past two games, though, Penn has upped its aggressiveness and number of shots, without quantitative results. "I've said many times that you make your own luck. The harder you work, the luckier you get," Fuller said. "We've continually worked hard from day one, and sooner or later we're going to get a break." The Lions, who are coming off of a 2-0 win over Adelphi at Columbia Soccer Stadium last Saturday, know a little bit about scoring problems themselves. "Scoring is just a matter of time in soccer," Columbia coach Dieter Ficken said. "Goals eventually do come if you continue to play intelligently." Ficken said that his team has been plagued by scoring inconsistency the past two seasons. In 1997, Columbia was shut out five times. In '96, the Lions entered the season hoping to earn Ficken his 13th NCAA tournament appearance as a coach. According to the Columbia soccer media guide, "scoring was the Lions' Achilles' heel" all season as a mid-season slump dropped the Lions to 9-5-3 and eliminated their tournament hopes. Of course, the "Achilles' heel" to which the guide refers is a mere 26 goals in 17 games. The Quakers, with a 0.375 goals per game average, would kill to have such an unlucky Achilles' heel. Nevertheless, Ficken expressed his understanding of Penn's problem and has warned his team that the Quakers' 1-7 record can be deceiving. "The most dangerous team to face is one that knows it can play but is frustrated by scoring," said Ficken, who has won 195 games in 19 years at Columbia. "They may be the best team in the country with a losing record." Ficken is not alone in this belief. Penn defender Tom Hughes, a Second Team All-Ivy selection in '97, maintains that the Quakers can hang tough with any opponent out there. "We're good enough to beat anybody," Hughes said following Wednesday's loss. "Even though we've lost a lot of tough games, I still believe this." Fuller also still believes that his team has the ability to compete with the upper echelon of college soccer. "Rudy [Fuller] and Jon [Pascale, Penn assistant coach] have been really good about keeping the team afloat and making sure we're not getting down on ourselves," Chen said. "Everybody still has high hopes. It's not like last year." First-year coach Fuller has kept his squad optimistic throughout '98. The Quakers carry that positive mentality into Saturday's contest, in which they hope to improve upon a pre-season 0-0 scrimmage with the Lions and earn their first Ivy League win. "It was a hotly contested game. Both teams really went at each other and fought hard," Fuller said. "We know what they bring to the table and they know what we bring to the table. I'm looking forward to another stiff test [with Columbia]." The test the Quakers face tomorrow is more than just one of victory or defeat. The optimism is there, as is the aggressive play. The only thing missing in Penn's recent onslaught of shots has been a goal. With a little luck from the Rhodes Field gods, this just might be the weekend in which the Quakers' "break-out" goal arrives.