The men's soccer team's loss to underdog La Salle on a late goal two weeks ago could have been the turning point in the Quakers' season.
It could have taken the wind out of the team's sails at the worst possible time - right before the onset of the Ivy League season.
But after a 1-0 victory at Cornell (1-4-3, 0-1-1 Ivy) this weekend, the pendulum is swinging in the right direction for Penn (6-2-0, 2-0-0).
After a 3-1 win over Harvard to open conference-play, the Quakers had, at the very least, gotten back to equilibrium. Now, Penn appears to be building steam.
"Momentum is the key," coach Rudy Fuller said. "But unless you continue to build on the results, it's not that significant."
And if there was one game in which the momentum could have died in its tracks, it was this one.
After a long bus ride to Ithaca, N.Y., Penn was greeted by a cold, windy rain and a misshapen field that had been mangled by the earlier women's soccer game.
But Fuller made sure that the Quakers came ready to play.
"Coach put a lot of emphasis on our focus and our approach for the game," said goalkeeper and captain Dan Cepero, who had two saves en-route to his 19th-career shutout. "We were mentally prepared as much as we were physically."
After a scoreless first half, this preparation shined through in the 58th minute, when junior midfielder Derek Hobson won a jump-ball on a long pass from sophomore defender John Elicker. Hobson then sent the ball to sophomore forward Andrew Ferry, who touched it past the keeper into the lower right corner.
According to Hobson, the Quakers did something they have failed to accomplish in the past, notably against La Salle - they strung together a full 90 minutes of quality soccer.
"The past couple of games, we've let ourselves down a little bit by not finishing it up," Hobson said. "We really put together an entire game, which is positive for us."
At the halfway-point in the season, the Quakers are in a good spot, but they won't let themselves look beyond the next game. Fuller keeps his players in a game-to-game mindset.
"We don't look at it as first-half or second-half of the season; we just kind of look at the next game," he said. "We look at it as 'the Cornell game is now over, and we're looking forward to Seton Hall [tomorrow].' And, when that game is behind us, we'll look to the next game.
"We just want to be consistent in how we approach each game and what we bring to each game."
For now, at least, the Red and Blue seem to be adhering to Fuller's gameplan. And if they keep playing like they have at the start of Ivy play, the rest of the Ancient Eight may have to keep an eye on the Quakers.
But with five of their last eight games coming against Ivy opponents, it will likely come back to the M-word.
"It's a good momentum boost to go into the Ivy League having won two games," Cepero said. "But our thing is really just kind of . concentrating on what's ahead of us."
