M. Soccer | Winning side of slip 'n slide

By NEIL FANAROFF

Staff Writer

neilif@dailypennsylvanian.com

The rain poured, the puddles formed and the mud splashed all over the place.

In the end, the men's soccer team left Rhodes field with dirty jerseys but a clean record. The Quakers triumphed over Philadelphia Soccer Seven rival Villanova, 3-2, in a definitively messy affair.

The weather "influenced everything," senior defender Ryan Porch said. "Games like this, you're not as much playing soccer as you are working as hard as you can to work harder than the other team."

The win was a tough one for the Quakers (6-0-3), who saw the Wildcats (4-4-2) answer after each score. Penn didn't seal the victory until the 80th minute, when midfielder Loukas Tasigianis sliced through the defense just seconds after Villanova had tied the score at two.

He broke straight through into the box, where Wildcats goalkeeper Chris Bresnahan came out to meet him. Bresnahan dove for the ball, upending Tasigianis, who was forced to leave with an apparent left ankle injury on the play.

Senior Kevin Unger took the penalty shot in his place and buried it over a diving Bresnahan.

"Every time Villanova answered, we had an answer for them," coach Rudy Fuller said. "Here, we just get stunned. They equalize late in the game, and our guys just put the ball down on the spot and went right down their throats."

While Tasigianis had to be helped off the field - the extent of his injury is not yet known - not everyone agreed with the whistle. Villanova coach Tom Carlin yelled at the referees following the call.

"You've got a lot of guts," he screamed. "That's ridiculous!"

Penn's defense was not as strong as it had been all year, allowing two goals for the second straight game. Prior to Sunday's match against Temple, the team had shut out its opponent in every game.

Goalkeeper Drew Healy blamed the weather for some of the defensive struggles.

"When the field is getting torn up like it did today and there's standing water on the field, there's always going to be a little aspect of the unexpected," he said. "The conditions make it a little crazy to play out here."

Near the game's end, though, the back four came up big. In the final 10-plus minutes, the Wildcats kept up constant pressure. With only a few minutes remaining, Villanova midfielder Anthony Griffith turned and had an open look at the net, but Healy dove to his right and knocked the ball away.

"Those are the kind of saves that you train day in and day out for, but they never really come around when the game's on the line," Healy said.

Penn found itself on top early thanks to some fancy footwork by midfielder Andrew Ferry in the 15th minute. Off a throw-in, he took a pass from forward Omid Shokoufandeh and dribbled it in to the box. The defense seemed to peel away from him, and he had an easy look at a wide-open net.

"We all had more time than we expected when we had the ball at our feet, time to turn and dribble at them," Ferry said. "I started dribbling and was looking for someone to pass it to the whole time but they just never closed down on me. So, I just kept dribbling and finished from about six yards out."

Villanova answered that goal - as well as freshman Christian Barreiro's tally later in the game - thanks to strong dribble penetration from junior Mike Seamon. On both goals, Seamon drew defenders and found a teammate - Griffith on the first and Jake Heyer on the second - standing alone in front of the net.

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