Rudy plays Rockne to fire up M. Soccer

After seven consecutive games of peak-level performance, the Penn men's soccer team finally wore down mentally. A 2-1 loss to Brown last Saturday seemed to sap the intensity of the Quakers and they played with the battery light on from then until a little after 3 p.m. on Wednesday. But it turns out Penn only needed a fiery halftime speech by coach Rudy Fuller against the University of Baltimore-Maryland County to recharge. The Quakers (3-8-2, 0-3-1 Ivy League) played with renewed energy in the second half against the Retrievers and carried the momentum into practice yesterday afternoon in preparation for tomorrow's game against Yale (9-4, 2-2) in New Haven, Conn. "[Yesterday] was probably one of our best practices of the year," Penn senior Henry Chen said. "Everybody looked good. We came out like we were going to kill each other. The intensity's definitely there. We just have to come out Saturday like we did today." Fuller split the Quakers into three teams in practice yesterday trying to recreate a game atmosphere. Two teams would play at a time, with the third team rotating in after every goal or at the end of five minutes if no team scored. These contests steadily built in intensity, culminating in a goal by Chen in the "championship" game. There was even a mini-celebration after Chen's heroics, punctuated by a cartwheel from the Mt. Laurel, N.J., native himself. "Playing is the best thing you can do," Fuller said. "You do this by putting guys in a competitive environment, showing them different things, challenging them different ways in games." Penn, however, needs to re-create that intensity tomorrow to avoid another Yale rout. The Elis have beaten the Quakers by a total of 10 goals in the last two years, including a 5-0 stomping at Rhodes Field last November. The Quakers likely need to slow down last year's Ivy League Player of the Year, senior forward Jac Gould, if they are to come away with their first league victory in Fuller's two-year tenure. "[Gould's] got good speed, good skill, and he can put the ball in the back of the net," Fuller said. "We've got our work cut out for us." Outside fullbacks John Salvucci and William Lee should mark Gould for much of the game, but Penn's strategy to contain the Elis forward involves all three defenders. "[Chen] will probably play a little deeper and protect a long ball over the top," Salvucci said. "He'll also slide over faster than normal when I'm isolated on him." Yale is coming off a 2-0 loss to Brown on Wednesday, a game in which the Bears outshot the Elis, 14-3. "On any given day, any team in the Ivy League can beat any other team, so it's not a shock that Yale loses to Brown," Fuller said. "There's no game in the Ivy League that would surprise me."