Men's Soccer steals league opener in double-overtime road victory

In Saturday's marathon game in Ithaca, N.Y., Penn coach Rudy Fuller's grueling practices finally paid dividends.

In the 105th minute in double overtime, Penn sophomore Stephen Kroculick -- off a pass from Joshua Duyan -- drilled a shot into the left side of the net to give the Penn men's soccer team a 2-1 victory over Cornell.

"Going into the second OT we were confident that we'd have at least one good chance," freshman Erik Violante said. "We were fitter and we wanted it more -- a lot of hard work in the preseason paid off."

That the win came in both Penn's Ivy League opener and also during Cornell's homecoming weekend made the victory even sweeter.

Seven hundred rowdy Big Red fans were in attendance at Berman Field on Saturday, to celebrate Cornell soccer, past and present.

The game was prefaced by a ceremony honoring the players on the Cornell team who won the Ivy League championship exactly 25 years ago.

Unfortunately, for the Big Red, their 1977 championship team was on the sidelines for this one.

In the first half, the outcome didn't look promising for the Quakers (5-1-0 overall, 1-0 Ivy).

The Big Red (3-2-1, 0-1 Ivy) put the first goal up on the scoreboard at 34:22 when Penn junior goalkeeper Matt Haefner's clear was redirected.

The ball accidentally bounced off the back of a Cornell forward and into the Quakers' net.

"Haefner played a really great game," Penn freshman Justin Estrada said. "With so many big saves, you got to overlook the one miscommunication.

Haefner's ability to respond with superb goaltending -- after an early mistake -- would prove crucial for the Quakers.

Haefner would stop a penalty kick by Cornell's Scott Benowicz with just over 22 minutes left in regulation.

"The shooter is usually going to convert more than 9 out of 10 penalty kicks," Fuller said. "Matt is working really hard in training and it is showing."

Though the Big Red lead 1-0 throughout the early stages of the second half, the Quakers finally struck back -- and quieted the Cornell crowd -- in the 66th minute when sophomore Joe Klein turned a defender and scored from within the penalty area.

Armed with a five-game win-streak, the Quakers think that their strong play will only continue.

"We're on a roll now," Estrada said. "And we still haven't reached our peak -- we are capable of better."

However, the Quakers are cautious when thinking about their current streak.

"For the past few weeks we've been ending other teams' winning streaks," Violante said. "So we know that it is the other team's dream to stop ours."

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