M. Soccer edged by Geo. Mason

Penn lost a 1-0 battle to the patriots and tied JMU at the George Mason Tournament Penn lost a 1-0 battle to the patriots and tied JMU at the George Mason Tournament A more experienced team may have been able to stop that third corner.Penn lost a 1-0 battle to the patriots and tied JMU at the George Mason Tournament A more experienced team may have been able to stop that third corner. But the Penn men's soccer team, of which seven of the 20 players are freshmen, is not exactly experienced. "We're a team that's excellent in the air, so we don't expect to give up a goal on a corner kick," Penn senior Reggie Brown said. "They did a short corner play and a couple of our players were stuck in no-man's land." Birchett's goal, which came 1:21 into the second half, would turn out to be the only one of the game. George Mason (2-2-1) shut down Penn the rest of the way as the Quakers emerged from George Mason Stadium with an 0-1-1 start to the season. The victory gave the Patriots a share of the tournament title with James Madison. The Dukes (3-0-1), who defeated Portland 3-2 earlier in the day, had tied the Quakers 2-2 on Friday. Penn went into the game against George Mason knowing that a win would give the team at least a share of the tournament title. But the Quakers, unlike the Patriots, did not get the one break they needed on offense. "Both teams had opportunities to score and we were fortunate to put one in the back of the net," George Mason coach Gordon Bradley said. "[O'Connor] came up big several times and kept them in the game." O'Connor's play, which included four saves in 90 minutes against the Patriots, earned him a spot on the All-Tournament team and drew raves from Penn coach Rudy Fuller. "Mike truly put in a world-class performance at goal today," Fuller said. "He made a few stops that were at another level." Joining the Springfield, Pa., native on the All-Tournament team were fellow Quakers Jason Karageorge and Eric Mandel. Center midfielder Mandel was one of four freshmen to earn starts from Fuller. William Libby started both games at forward, while Alex Maasry and Robb Jankura also started at midfield positions. But it was another freshman, Nathan Kennedy, who provided offensive firepower for the Quakers. The Portland, Ore., native struck first against James Madison on Friday off a pass from junior Mike McElwain just 3:57 before halftime. "The first goal came after a bit of sustained pressure," Fuller said. "We got numbers forward and Nathan Kennedy finished it on a good shot." The Dukes came back 2:31 into the second half, as sophomore Reggie Rivers took a cross from Randy Steeprow and shot it past O'Connor from six yards away for his first career goal. Less than four minutes later, Brown regained the lead for Penn. Coming off a pass from sophomore Evan Anderson, Brown's shot trickled just to the left of Dukes goalie Billy DuRoss. But the lead was short-lived, as junior Niki Budalich tied it up again for James Madison just 32 seconds later. "We're still learning how to win games," Fuller said. "When you score to go up, you have to put the pressure on the team to put the game away, and maybe we let off the gas pedal a bit." After the scoring frenzy of four goals in under 11 minutes, the two teams would be held scoreless for the last 68:13, as the game ended in a 2-2 tie. Senior DuRoss had three saves for the Dukes, while O'Connor -- who left the game prior to the two overtime periods after taking a shot to the hip -- and sophomore Jeff Groeber combined for three Quakers' saves. Penn was outshot 32-16 on the weekend, but the Quakers never found themselves down by more than one goal in either game. Still, the newly competitive Penn team refuses to admit a moral victory in the results at George Mason Stadium. "It was real easy to say [that this was a moral victory] last year," O'Connor said. "But we're trying to stay away from that. These were two games we should have won." The Quakers have a chance to even their record and register their first Ivy League victory under Fuller on Saturday when Dartmouth travels to Rhodes Field.