M. Soccer cannot hold lead

Eighteen minutes into the men's soccer game on Saturday, the fat lady was already warming up on Ohiri Field. Penn, a team that has not come back from any sort of deficit this season, was in a seemingly insurmountable 2-0 hole against host Harvard. But the Quakers, by uncharacteristically mounting a comeback, managed to at least postpone the singing until after the final horn. But when all was said and done, Penn had clawed its way back on top of Harvard, only to watch the Crimson pull off a comeback of their own to knock off the Quakers, 4-3. Harvard started the scoring on a penalty kick by senior Will Hench nine minutes and eight seconds into the game. The Crimson then took a two-goal advantage less than 10 minutes later when sophomore Nick Lenichek took a pass from Juan Carlos Montoy, cut towards the center and knocked the ball past Penn goalie Mike O'Connor. Throughout the season, when the Quakers (4-11-2, 0-6-1 Ivy League) have fallen into a hole, they have failed to crawl out. But this time Penn reacted differently when it fell behind. "There was certainly a reaction of anger," Penn coach Rudy Fuller said. "I think the guys responded and started to play the way they're capable of playing." Less than eight minutes after they fell behind 2-0, the Quakers would knot the game at two. Penn slashed the deficit in half in the 25th minute, as Quakers freshman Billy Libby crossed to junior Mike McElwain, who took a shot that bounced off Harvard keeper Dan Mejias to the feet of Penn freshman Nathan Kennedy. The Quakers forward then knocked it past the out-of-position Mejias from 18 yards out. Senior Reggie Brown tied the game only 24 seconds later on a left-footed shot after being set up on a cross from McElwain. In the season opener against James Madison, Kennedy and Brown scored for the Quakers, but neither had netted another goal until Saturday. "We would have expected to put a lot more away this season with that opening promise," Brown said. "But that's just the way things go." Penn came out of halftime attacking, and 5:01 into the second period, Quakers freshman Justin Litterelle was fouled in the box. Junior Henry Chen took the penalty shot and nailed it home to give Penn a 3-2 lead. Harvard (6-9-2, 3-4) gave the Quakers a dose of their own medicine by mounting a comeback of their own in the 80th minute. Harvard's Armando Petruccelli deadlocked the game at three and stopped Penn's three-goal run when he drilled home a Montoy cross from the 20 at the 79:03 mark. Forty-two seconds later, the Crimson took the lead on Lenichek's second goal of the day, a header off a cross from sophomore Wells Mangrum. "I take a lot of the blame for the loss because of some of the moves I didn't make," Fuller said. "Some of our guys ran out of gas and I didn't take them out fast enough." The Quakers kept pressure on the Harvard defense for the final 10 minutes but could not manage a serious striking chance. "We actually had more opportunities when it was 3-2 to make it 4-2," McElwain said. McElwain came closest to giving Penn a two-goal advantage when his header off a free kick from Chen went just over the crossbar. The Quakers played their final game of the season with senior midfielder Jason Karageorge, who returned after missing two games with a torn posterior cruciate ligament. Karageorge did not start but came into the game after Penn fell behind by two goals. "He was still hurt, so he wasn't really playing up to his best," McElwain said. "But just having him on the field and communicating between our defense helped us a lot." Penn finished its season with just four wins for the second year in a row but the goal totals illustrate the difference between the past two Quakers' teams. Last year Penn was outscored 30-9 but this year that margin was just 28-18, indicating that the 1999 Quakers were a great deal more competitive. Still, Penn could not get the breaks to pull out the close victories this season, something never more evident than in Saturday's heart-wrenching loss to Harvard.