Bench gives M. Soccer a lift in upset win

Penn beat Lafayette on goals from Niko Vittas and Robb Jankura. Penn was not supposed to win. And Niko Vittas certainly was not supposed to score. Yet somehow, both happened yesterday as Vittas sealed a 2-0 upset victory for the Quakers men's soccer team over Lafayette with a late-second half goal. Vittas, a Penn freshman, had missed the first three weeks of the season with a broken forearm. A defender and defensive midfielder, the Washington, D.C., native had yet to see action in a college game before yesterday. So when Penn coach Rudy Fuller called Vittas' number with 10 minutes remaining, few anticipated what would happen next: Vittas nailed an 18-yard one-timer past Lafayette goalie Craig Schroeder to give the Quakers a two-goal lead with 6:40 remaining. It was the first time he had touched the ball all season. "It felt great to finally be able to make a contribution in an actual game," Vittas said. The goal by Vittas sealed the game for the Quakers (2-4-2), who withstood pressure from the attacking Leopards (4-4-2) through much of the second half. Lafayette, ranked third in the Mid-Atlantic region, beat Penn 3-0 last season and appeared to be the clear favorite heading into yesterday's game at Metzgar Field. Penn, however, used an aggressive style of play to defeat the patient and defensive-minded Leopards. While both teams took just seven shots in the game, the aggressive Quakers committed 25 fouls in the game. By comparison, Lafayette was whistled for just seven violations. "It was definitely a rough game," Penn forward Eric Mandel said. "The total number of fouls we committed shows our intensity and how we wanted to get the ball from them. The team that plays with more intensity is the one that is going to have more fouls." Penn took the lead 29:19 into the game when freshman Robb Jankura scored from six yards out off a pass from senior Jason Karageorge. "It wasn't a real pretty goal," Jankura said. "But a goal's a goal." Unlike in previous games -- particularly Saturday's game against Columbia where Penn was outscored 3-0 in the second half -- the Quakers did not suffer a post-halftime letdown, despite a barrage of shots from the Leopards. "In the second half, they had to come out of it a bit and attack a bit more than they're used to," Fuller said. "They threw a lot of numbers forward but we dealt with that really well." Goalie Mike O'Connor recorded his second shutout of the season. Although the Penn senior co-captain only had to make three saves, none of them was easy. O'Connor's toughest chance came with a minute remaining when he stopped Lafayette senior Jake Ross' shot from 15 yards out. The Leopards also had several opportunities to tie the game earlier in the second half. A shot by Lafayette senior Leidy Klotz went off the post at the 63-minute mark, while senior Dan Hughes was stuffed in the box after getting a header from teammate Tim Wenger with 8:30 remaining. "We had some good opportunities down the stretch but couldn't get the ball into the net," Lafayette coach Tim Lenahan said. "Penn made the most of its opportunities in the game and that was the difference." For the first time this season, neither of Penn's non-senior forwards started the game. Both sophomore Evan Anderson and junior Mike McElwain came off the bench halfway through the first half and Fuller was pleased by the spark the two added provided. Not coincidentally, just five minutes after the two forwards entered the game, Jankura scored the opening goal of the game. "It was Mike [McElwain's] hard work defensively up front that created the first goal," Fuller said. "We had gotten the ball forward and they had disrupted our attack and had the ball. Mike pressured two of their guys pretty quickly and got it back for us." Fuller, in an effort not to meddle with what has worked, does not intend to start Anderson or McElwain against the University of Philadelphia next Wednesday, preferring to let his bench continue to produce. "What we ask from our reserves is that when they come in, they'll lift our team," Fuller said. And with goals from unlikely sources -- Jankura and Vittas both came off the bench just minutes before scoring their goals -- that's exactly what Penn's reserves did yesterday in pulling off the upset over Lafayette.

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