Even though the scoreboard read 2-0 for Seton Hall after the first half last night, Penn men's soccer coach Rudy Fuller "was looking forward to the second half."
Unfortunately for him, he got more than he bargained for.
The Pirates (2-0-0) netted four more goals in the latter 45 minutes to blow the Quakers (0-1-0) away 6-2 in their season opener in South Orange, N.J.
"We played a team that was going to challenge our defense and clearly we weren't sharp enough," Fuller said.
From the first few minutes, it was clear that Monday would not belong to Penn. An early 1-0 lead was taken away by a linesman who flagged the Red and Blue for what Fuller believes to have been a dubious goalkeeper interference call.
Less than five minutes later, Seton Hall forward Eliseo Giusfredi took a through pass behind the defensive line and had a one-on-one. Penn goalkeeper Kevin Sweetland came out aggressively to make a save, taking out Giusfredi. A penalty kick was called and Giusfredi rippled the twine to give Seton Hall a 1-0 lead.
Fuller and Sweetland were not happy with this call.
"When the goalkeeper comes out, makes a play on the ball and gets it, it's a fair challenge," Fuller said.
But Penn had nothing to argue about when Giusfredi again took a through ball past the Quakers' defense and was tripped up for another penalty kick which he also converted in the 14th minute.
"It was tough, mentally, to overcome that two-goal deficit," Fuller said, "but I think our guys did a fairly good job - we outshot them 9-5 in the half. We just needed to tighten some things up defensively."
Instead, the screws fell off as the Quakers opened up the floodgates to a Seton Hall onslaught. Giusfredi's frontline partner, Andrew Welker, fired two shots past Sweetland in the 52nd and 55th minutes.
Penn's Kevin Unger finally brought some measure of respectability to the Quakers when he booted one over the head of Pirates' keeper Paul McHenry.
By that point, though, the game had slipped out of reach. Fuller gave backup keeper Ben Berg an opportunity to play, along with a few other freshmen.
After the game, Fuller didn't blame his team's precarious goaltending situation for the deficit. His finger was pointed squarely at the defense.
"For Kevin's first game in goal in college - and this will sound crazy - I think he did fairly well," he said. "Ben played well, too. It was the guys in front of them that let the team down."
Sweetland stopped short of knocking his back four, and instead said that "soccer's a team game, and all 11 guys need to be playing well to win."
Fuller must be concerned that the loss fell on his defense and not his goaltending. Going into the season, the defense was the one facet that he was not concerned about.
For that failure, he took responsibility.
"Because we have so many experienced players returning, I don't think we spent enough time on defense in practice," Fuller said. "That's where I take most of the blame. We've got to make sure we spend the proper amount of time on all facets of the game."
