Not a setback, coach Rudy Fuller said. Just a wake-up call.
Terminology aside, the men's soccer team pulled defeat from the clutches of victory last night. After going ahead 2-0 in the opening 25 minutes, Penn conceded three straight goals to La Salle and lost at McCarthy Stadium, 3-2.
"We came out and played a very good 15 minutes," senior defender Andy Howard said. "Then we started taking this team lightly."
Penn looked to be off to a good start when senior forward Ryan Tracy accepted a feed from sophomore Mike Klein in the 26th minute and slotted it home for an early 1-0 lead. And when Howard made it 2-0 with a header a few minutes later, Penn (4-2) looked poised to ease toward a Philadelphia Soccer Seven title for the second consecutive year.
"At that point, during the times that we got those first and second goals, we were in complete control of the game," Fuller said.
Even when La Salle (4-3-1) pulled back a goal to cut into the lead, the Quakers looked to be in the driver's seat entering the second half. They were unlucky not to score in the 58th minute, when they mounted their best chance of the half. Tracy and Klein ran up against La Salle's last defender, but Tracy mistimed his run and was called offside.
The Explorers seemed to use that lucky escape as a rallying point and turned up the heat on Penn's goal. Senior goalkeeper Dan Cepero was called into action in the 63rd minute, stopping a point-blank header from within six yards of the goal.
Cepero finally let one sneak through five minutes later. In what was a recurring theme throughout the second half, the Quakers' defense couldn't clear the ball out of their own penalty box and conceded a soft goal to La Salle's swarming front line.
"We couldn't figure out how to step up to balls in our penalty box, to go and have that desire to win the ball," Howard said. "And we were punished three times for it."
That third time came about 13 minutes later. After Penn conceded a corner, La Salle's Jeremy Ortiz gained position around the penalty spot. The forward directed a pinpoint header that froze Cepero, dipped just under the crossbar and tickled the side of the net.
Ten minutes later, it was over. One couldn't help feeling that, as Fuller admitted, La Salle deserved to win.
"We thought we had a comfortable lead, and we just started playing softer, basically," Tracy said.
Most importantly for Penn, the players and coach vowed not to let the meltdown at McCarthy affect its momentum and confidence with the Ivy League schedule fast approaching.
"There's not going to be any repercussions from this game, you'll see," Tracy said, referring to Penn's Ivy opener at Rhodes Field on Saturday.
"We're just going to take it to Harvard."
