Cornell 'hungry' but impotent

Penn men's soccer coach Rudy Fuller knows his team is going to see Cornell's best game when the Quakers (6-0-3) take on the Big Red tomorrow at Charles F. Berman Field in Ithaca, N.Y.

"Here's an opportunity to turn their season around and there's no better way to do it than against Penn," Fuller said.

The Big Red (1-6-0) are going to need a lot of their best punches and a little bit of luck to knock out the Red and Blue.

In seven games this season, Cornell has scored only three goals and been shut out five times. Their lone victory came against a mediocre Lafayette team.

Still, Fuller and his Quakers are not looking past the Big Red. As both teams' Ivy League opener, tomorrow's game has serious implications for any hopes to win an Ancient Eight title.

"Whenever you get into conference, it's a different type of game," Penn senior goalkeeper Drew Healy said. "Because we don't have a [conference] tournament, every game is like a semifinal or a final."

A 3-2 win over city rival Villanova on Wednesday kept the Quakers unbeaten, but they are still not satisfied with their performance this season.

"We need to get back to doing the little things we did so well in the first seven games." Healy said.

Penn has used a schedule packed with intra-city slugfests and matchups with power conference teams to prepare for Ivy play.

So far this season, it has faced five teams from the Big East and Big Ten conferences and two teams from the Philly Soccer Seven.

It's the city games that the Red and Blue think will help them the most in Ancient Eight play.

"I think that's good preparation for the Ivies this weekend," said senior forward Andrew Ferry, who leads the Quakers with 11 points off four goals. "That's exactly what Ivy League games turn out to be like."

Despite a left ankle injury to sophomore midfielder/forward Loukas Tasigianis, who is questionable for tomorrow's game, the Quakers will bring some serious momentum with them to upstate New York .

They think they'll need it to deal with a Cornell team that will be, in Fuller's words, "very hungry."

The Quakers plan to make sure that the Big Red's choice of snack does not include them.

"Teams are trying different things against us to try and break us down," Fuller said. "We've got to be ready to handle that."

-Staff writer Neil Fanaroff contributed reporting to this article.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.