M. Soccer | Faceoff in Fairfax

By ELI COHEN

Staff Writer

coheneli@dailypennsylvanian.com

In the wild buildup before the Penn men's soccer team's historic 1-0 win over Harvard last Sunday, senior midfielder Kevin Unger said to "interview me on Monday after we win."

Unger's guarantee was bold, but ultimately correct.

So what did soccer's resident psychic have to say about this evening's first round NCAA matchup against George Mason?

"I think we're the better team," Unger said. "I think that'll show, and we should get the result."

Unger and the No. 20 Quakers (11-2-4) will have to prove that when they take on the Patriots (13-6-2) at their home field in Fairfax, Va.

George Mason enters the match on a seven-game winning streak, outscoring opponents, 19-4, during that stretch.

The Patriots turned their Colonial Athletic Association tournament into a personal shooting gallery, posting two shutouts, a 3.7 goals-per-game average - and one humiliation of the rest of the teams in the field.

"Something's gotta give," Penn coach Rudy Fuller said. "They're arguably the hottest team in the country right now. They're scoring goals by the bucketload."

Whatever's going to end up giving, Fuller and his team are confident it won't be their defense. The Quakers' back line has looked like a red and blue brick wall the entire season, posting a program-record 11 shutouts.

In its last three games, against Brown, Princeton and Harvard, Penn has given up a grand total of zero goals.

Fuller points to team unity and precise execution as the Quakers' biggest assets on defense.

"We're talking about it as a group of 11," Fuller said. "It's not Johnny Elicker or Ryan Porch or Lee Rubenstein or Jake Levin. It's Penn soccer defending together as a group."

A central part of that group of 11 is senior goalkeeper Drew Healy, who leads the league with 11 shutouts and an .855 save percentage. And there's some confidence to go along with that consistency.

"I don't think a lot of teams have seen a defense like ours," Healy said.

For all their security on 'D', the Quakers still harbor some doubts about the other side of the ball. In their last two matches, the Red and Blue have totaled just one goal, well below their season average of 1.88 goals per game.

"I think we've had some trouble clicking together," senior forward and leading scorer Omid Shokoufandeh said. "We need to be more dynamic in the front. The two [in] front need to be able to connect more."

But the Quakers are pretty sure the connection will be made and the offense will kick-start.

"The issue with the last two weeks is that [we] were facing two very good teams," Fuller said.

They're facing a very good team this week, too, but don't worry about the final result.

Just ask Kevin Unger.

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