M. Soccer drops home finale to Yale

This past Saturday, in between a St. Bernard fighting off a pesky opposing striker for the ball and boisterous rants from fraternity gatherings on both sidelines, the Penn men's soccer team actually had a game with Yale on Rhodes Field. The Homecoming match itself, however, was the craziest sight of all -- a frightful 5-0 Quakers-bashing at the hands of Yale. "I don't really know what to say about this one," Quakers junior goalkeeper and tri-captain Michael O'Connor said. "No one was strong today. No one really had a good game today. It's definitely hard to take." Entering the game, the Quakers (4-10-1, 0-5-1 Ivy) were on a high, winners of three of their last four. After their come-from-behind win Wednesday against UMBC, Penn had built up some momentum they hoped would carry them into this contest. "Even as of 12 o'clock [Saturday] we were pumped. The guys were coming in, and seemed ready to go, and I'm feeling really good about the game," Quakers coach Rudy Fuller said. "But for whatever reason, we weren't able to get it done." The Quakers' troubles on the day started early -- just ten minutes in, Elis (8-6-1, 3-2-0) junior midfielder Chung-Ming Ip volleyed a shot from just inside the box over the head of a leaping O'Connor to take a 1-0 lead. The Quakers played determined not to lose the final home game of seniors Jared Boggs and Ralph Maier, though, and generated prime scoring chances soon after falling behind. But the Quakers could not tally the equalizer, as both freshman striker Evan Anderson and junior striker Reggie Brown sent shots wide of net. With these unrealized opportunities went the momentum, and the game quickly shifted back to the Elis' end of the field. "By midway into the first half, it seemed like we were watching them play a little bit," Quakers junior defender Tom Hughes said. "We should have been right up on them, blocking the passes, and talking a lot more, and that was frustrating." The play that broke the Quakers' back was the second Yale goal, in the 24th minute. Elis junior midfielder Hiro Suzuki, whose slight 5'7" build was offset by his skilled attacking abilities, made a long run up the middle, going through, around and under three Quakers defenders in the box, finishing with a shot into the lower left corner of the net for the 2-0 Elis lead. "I saw a hole in the defense, so I ran right through it, and [Elis midfielder Matt Schmidt] played a perfect ball at me," Suzuki said. "I got to the top of the box and three guys were around me, so then I toe-poked it, and it bounced right over the goalkeeper's hands. It was a good goal." Less than four minutes after this defensive breakdown the Phi Delt St. Bernard -- possibly upset at the liberties that the Elis were taking with some of his Quakers brothers -- decided to join in. The dog kept the dangerous Suzuki, who had a goal and two assists on the day, and the Elis away from the ball for over a minute until he was returned to the sideline. This was possibly the longest stretch of time the Elis were without the ball on the day, though, as the Quakers often found themselves unable to keep track of the ball in the midfield and back. "The passing was awful the whole game. I think almost everyone was guilty of giving away passes for no reason," Boggs said. "If the passing is off, everything else just compounds. If you lose possession, then you have to run more on defense, and you get more tired." When the home team was able to get up the field and generate a bit of offense, Elis sophomore goalkeeper Danny Moss was able to stifle the chances. Unfortunately for the Quakers, Moss' box score consisted of only one save, as opposed to nine for O'Connor. Down 3-0 at the break, whatever slim chance the Quakers had at turning the game around disintegrated barely three minutes into the second half, as Elis junior forward Neil Guilbert put home a rebound that had caromed off of O'Connor's chest. With a late goal, the 11th of the year by striker Jac Gould, the Elis matched their five-goal margin of victory over the Quakers of a year ago. Late in the game, with the team down five, the Quakers bench was cleared, and three walk-ons saw their first action of '98. In addition, Quakers freshman keeper Jeff Groeber replaced O'Connor and saw action in his third game of '98, saving one shot in the last 20 minutes. Despite the festive post-game Homecoming atmosphere, which included "a lovely spread of food" according to several Quakers parents, the day was an overall disappointment for a Quakers team that had played much better soccer in the previous two weeks. "It was a very disappointing result, especially for the last home game for Ralph and Jared. For all they've given the program, I was really hoping we could get a 'W' for them," Fuller said. "But we didn't come out ready to play, and we got punished for it."