Ivy League title in sight for Men's Soccer

When a great offense meets a great defense, who wins?

This Saturday afternoon, the answer will be played out on the soccer field as a defensive-minded Penn men's soccer team hosts Brown and their fast-paced offense.

For the No. 22 Quakers (9-2, 4-0 Ivy), this is a particularly important matchup since it could solidify their position atop the Ivy League.

"This is the biggest game of the season," sophomore David Maier said. "It is important to keep the momentum going -- we don't want to just get complacent and start thinking of the number of games we need to win the Ivies."

For those who are interested, the magic number happens to be two. If the Quakers win two out of their three remaining Ivy games, they will clinch the Ivy title. With a win and a tie, the Quakers clinch a share of the league championship.

With the Bears standing at 5-5-4 overall and 1-1-2 in the Ivies, Saturday's matchup looks to be one of the Quakers' best chances to tighten their stranglehold on the rest of the Ancient Eight.

Though the Bears' record does not look particularly impressive, the Quakers are not about to underestimate their opponents.

"All Ivy games are very intense," Penn coach Rudy Fuller said. "Brown was the Ivy League champion last year and they haven't lost many players."

However, one key loss was junior Adam Crew who had a .818 shots on goal percentage before suffering a season-ending knee injury.

The current Ivy League Rookie of the Week, freshman Ibrahim Diane, has been stepping up to fill the void left by Crew.

"Diane is from my hometown and I've had a good look at him," Fuller said. "He's a very technical player and he's good at running at you."

While the Quakers may be lacking in marquee names, they make up for it with their stellar team defense.

The statistics say it all. The Red and Blue have allowed a mere 5 goals out of 126 attempts. Conversely, the Bears allowed 22 goals out of 217 attempts.

Still, the Quakers emphasize that stats don't win games.

"The stats have gone really well for us, but when you go into an Ivy League game the stats go out the window," Fuller said. "Telling the difference between the number one and number eight teams is like splitting hairs."

Despite the even distribution of talent among the teams in the Ancient Eight, the Quakers do have some advantages.

This is Penn's Homecoming weekend, which means that throngs of alumni will add to the Quakers' vocal fan base at Rhodes Field.

In addition, this past Wednesday's match against Georgetown was cancelled because of the rain -- giving the Quakers some extra rest.

"Given the bad weather conditions and Georgetown's team, that was the type of game that would have taken a lot out of us," freshman Justin Estrada said.

Estrada is coming off of a mild concussion and will be a game time decision.

He mirrored the sentiments of many Quakers' players when he said: "I'm very excited -- I feel ready to play."

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