PRINCETON, N.J. - Any weaknesses the Penn men's soccer team showed on Saturday were briefly forgotten when Kevin Unger's overtime winner rippled the net.
But only a few minutes later, coach Rudy Fuller knew his team needed to improve, even in spite of its dramatic victory.
"I think I have to look at some of the situations I'm putting the team through in training," Fuller said. "Right now, they're doing the work, but we're not getting as many goals as we feel we should."
That's not a new problem for Penn, which scored only six goals in its seven Ivy League games, despite winning five of them. But against difficult opposition down the stretch, it became even more visible.
Penn controlled the game and created chances - defender Jeff Livingston remarked that the Quakers "had all the chances we could have." But for the first 99 minutes, they couldn't create a dividend on those offensive opportunities.
And even Unger's goal was a disputed one; several Princeton players slowed down expecting play to be stopped for an injury to Penn's Alex Grendi just before Unger received the winning pass.
Princeton's faster players created some of the problems. Penn was constantly tested by players like Devin Muntz, Princeton's diminutive midfielder.
But like Penn's overtime matches against Columbia and Brown, the prevailing sentiment was that the Quakers could have wrapped up the game much earlier.
Omid Shokoufandeh lit up the Princeton defense, often taking on multiple defenders and creating opportunities. But when the sophomore found promising positions, he ended up taking just one dribble too many.
Ryan Tracy had a golden chance after 72 minutes but could only muster a sidefooted shot from outside the box that Princeton's Justin Oppenheimer collected easily.
And forwards Grendi and Mike Klein weren't exempt, either. So ultimately, it fell to Unger to save the game and possibly earn his team a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
The sophomore matchwinner cited lucky coincidence and persistence as the two biggest reasons he seems to always produce a good finish at the right time.
Penn has had plenty of those this year, but Fuller knows that, to score consistently, the Quakers need to find their touch around the goal mouth.
"As a coach, our staff will look at that," he said. We'll "try and put our team in better situations in training to help make them more productive in the game."
