PROVIDENCE, R.I., Oct. 27 - A showdown against the Ivy league's top dogs isn't a good time to have an off day.
With the season on the line, the then-one-loss Quakers had their moments but in the end were swept away 3-0 by a dominant No. 6 Brown squad. Penn now sits at 2-2 in the league (5-7-2 overall), while Brown moves to 4-0 (11-1-1) and is now coasting toward an Ivy title.
"They fully deserved to beat us by three goals today," Penn coach Rudy Fuller said. "They were very good and we were below par."
Senior co-captain and midfielder Derek Hobson played a physical game, but by his own admission missed some chances as well and wishes his team had let it all out on the field.
"We're a very skilled team, but we're small, and in that case you need to bring it 10 times more, and we didn't," Hobson said. "You try to prepare people to play soccer, but you can't really prepare people to play with heart, play with passion and it was lacking today."
Brown played the opening 10 minutes of the game almost entirely in Penn's end, but couldn't find the net. The Quakers then began to put together some opportunities on some set pieces - including a Kevin Unger miss from point blank range.
But as the half came to a close, the Bears' sharp passing created chance after chance. Penn's defending in the final third was enough to keep the Bears off the board, but it became too much to handle. In the 42nd minute, midfielder Darren Howerton chested down a through ball and tucked it into the corner past Penn keeper Drew Healy.
"Going into the half 0-0 would have made a big difference because mentally we broke down a little bit with that late goal," Hobson said. "[It] didn't need to happen, it was just an instance where someone didn't follow their man and it's just a quick one-two. It was unfortunate, it could have easily been prevented. But you have to stay in it for the full 90 minutes and we didn't."
Brown continued to look like the stronger side in the second half, and 15 minutes after the restart made it two-nil.
In the final 30 minutes, Penn began to desperately push forward, and it nearly worked. Hobson took an imaginative pass from junior forward Omid Shokoufandeh, but his breakaway attempt was parried away by keeper Paul Grandstrand.
Brown's man in net looked solid all night, also denying Alex Grendi on a screamer from some 25-yards out soon after.
In all, Brown's passing was too crisp, its spacing too balanced and its players too big in the air for the middle-of-the-table away side.
"The main thing was just attacking in numbers," co-captain and defender Keith Vereb said.
"They were very aggressive in the midfield," he added, "and when they won that ball they were just coming at us, and left us with a lot of decisions whether to commit or to hang back."
Fuller understands that he lost to a top team, but was disappointed with the way his team played.
"We weren't very well-organized as a group tonight," Fuller said. "I don't think it was a very strong performance as a team, and I think we all share part of the blame on that.
"Clearly as coaches we thought we had prepared them well for tonight, but the game is the test, and [the players] weren't ready for it."
With the loss, the Quakers' fate is nearly sealed, as they would have to win out and get a lot of help to win the league.
"It's a tough one," Hobson said. "We knew that this was basically win or go home at this rate, so it's tough."
