The men's soccer team wasn't about to make the same mistake twice.
After taking a lead against Harvard, the Quakers didn't wilt like they did against La Salle last Wednesday - they came back for more. Penn ended up a 3-1 winner, putting itself at the top of the Ivy League standings after the first weekend of league play.
"The first league win's the hardest one to get," coach Rudy Fuller said. "The regular season winner gets the automatic bid [to the NCAA College Cup], so it's critical that you get out of the gates quickly."
At first, it didn't look like either team was going to get that quick start. The first half was a war of attrition that took place mainly in the middle third of the field.
Penn (5-2, 0-1 Ivy) relied heavily on overambitious long balls to sophomore Mike Klein and long throw-ins from junior Jeffrey Livingston. Harvard's speedy left winger, Michael Fucito, created some problems in the Penn defense, but the Crimson never directed any potent shots on net.
The first half ended goalless, with neither team threatening to score.
Klein said that a tactical change by Harvard ultimately helped tip the balance in Penn's favor. "They kind of switched it up a little bit, [drew] us a little bit more to the middle. It didn't look so pretty, but we got goals out of it," he said.
When Penn finally broke through, in the 63rd minute, the goal came from an unlikely source. A good individual run by sophomore Omid Shokoufandeh won a corner for Penn on the left side. Klein hit a low corner that fell for his high school classmate Kevin Unger, who slotted the ball into the right side of the net.
The goal was the second of Unger's career - his first, coincidentally, came last year, also against Harvard.
"Before the corner kick, I just had a feeling the ball was going to come back to the 18 [yard line]", Unger said. "Sure enough, the ball came back - I struck it, and it went in the side netting."
The Quakers used a strong team effort to keep a firm hold on the game when Harvard stepped up its pressure on the home team's goal. Fuller was able to rest Klein and classmate Alex Grendi for 15 crucial minutes, relying on Shokoufandeh, senior Ryan Tracy and sophomore Andrew Ferry up front.
Even when senior defensive leader Andy Howard fell victim to cramps with 15 minutes to go, Penn stayed relatively solid, and fully deserved the second goal when it came in the 83rd minute.
Derek Hobson created some space when he eluded two Harvard defenders on a strong run forward. The junior slipped it off to Klein, who had come out refreshed after his short respite. Klein rifled the ball toward the far post to put Penn ahead 2-0 - and into the driver's seat.
But Harvard, who now falls to 5-3 overall, and 0-1 in the Ivy League, suspended the home crowd's victory celebrations briefly with a consolation goal two minutes later. Andre Akpan lobbed his header over the fingertips of senior goalkeeper Dan Cepero to halve Penn's lead.
"It's almost as if we just decided to just sit in," Fuller said of Harvard's comeback effort. "Harvard's too good of a team to just let them take pot shots at your goal."
Penn would not be denied, though, and struck back less than a minute later.
Fittingly, its third goal came on a corner kick, and again from the foot of a substitute. From the right side, Klein found sophomore Josh Baugh, whose first goal of the season truly put the game out of reach and drew praise from his coach.
"They score to make it 2-1, and what a fantastic goal by Josh Baugh," Fuller said of the sophomore's near-post finish.
"He'd only been on the field a couple of minutes. And that response . that was it. That was it."
