The Penn men's soccer team lit up the scoreboard so brightly against Saint Joseph's yesterday that spectators could have forgotten the Quakers were missing half their team.
Penn (5-7-2) dominated the Hawks, 7-1, and clinched a share of the Philadelphia Soccer 7 title.
The Hawks helped the Red and Blue by falling out of formation and generally not being able to keep up with Penn's pace.
"I don't think the score is indicative of how well we played," Penn coach Rudy Fuller said.
"There was some laziness and casual play, and that is something to battle with every midweek game.... We were just able to finish off about every chance we had."
The game was the second contest that seven Penn players missed, serving two-game suspensions for violating team disciplinary policy. Nine players total are serving staggered suspensions that will end next game.
One reserve who found himself in a starting role was junior midfielder Matthew Waddell, who scored three goals and added one assist in the game.
Junior David Maier also made his mark on the stat sheet, netting two goals and three assists.
The Quakers drew first blood in the ninth minute, when Waddell took the ball in the box from Maier and deflected it to co-captain Stephen Kroculick, who kicked it past Hawks' goalie Kevin Dougher -- Kroculick would score again in the second half.
Waddell's first goal came less than 90 seconds later off a bullet from the top of the box, which flew past Dougher into the left corner of the net. He would add his second goal 15 minutes later on a penalty kick.
One notable part of Penn's play was its unusually frequent use of long passes. Whether it was across the field or down towards the opposition's goal, the Quakers utilized the open space created by the slow play of St. Joe's.
"Usually we struggle to find spaces, but as soon as we went up 1-0, they started to feel pressure to play on the counterattack," Maier said. "Athletically, we thought they couldn't handle us up front or anywhere else on the field."
Fuller credited his team's ability to "create a few opportunities in the final third" of the field because St. Joe's was not as sharp, but also made a point to note that both teams "clearly were not playing on top of their games."
Maier said some Hawks defensive failures helped him score his two goals.
On his goal in the 72nd minute, Maier said he was able to back a defender into the corner "so the goalie didn't have much of a chance" to defend his shot. Maier also noted that the Hawks' defense was out of position on his second goal, scored with just over two minutes to play.
When asked if he thought the score of the game would be so high, Fuller said emphatically, "No way."
"You go into these games and they are big rivalries within the city, so you get into a fast and difficult game and there is a chance that you run out of gas," Fuller said. "But our guys kept playing and certainly scored a number of good goals."
"It was for the Philly 7 title so we thought they would be coming out strong," Maier said. "One thing they tried to do was continually substitute guys in to try to run us down, but we were fit enough to hang in there."
Freshman goalie Daniel Cepero got his second Philly 7 win between the posts, but allowed his second goal of the year in the process -- a trickle shot by Hawks senior Pat Mondile in front of the goal that looked to be caused by player confusion and an obstruction of Cepero's vision.
But the goal was overshadowed by the overwhelming Quakers offense, which even scored goals off breakaways -- Waddell got his hat trick on a break -- a feat rarely achieved in city matches.
"This result helps to get us sharper and build confidence that we can create chances," Maier said. "Scoring goals, beating people one-on-one -- it's all the same no matter what team you play."
