They say that there is no such thing as luck — and the men’s soccer team certainly does not succumb to superstition.
But with the way things have been going recently, it seems that someone up above has it out for the Quakers and last night’s finish against American was no exception.
With twenty seconds remaining in the second overtime, an unlucky deflection caused a bouncing ball to land right at the feet of Eagles attacker Jamie Davin.
He took advantage of the fortuitous turn of events and fired a shot from 25 yards out to give the Eagles a 2-1 victory in the nation’s capital.
“I don’t really know what to say,” sophomore defender Jake Levin opined. “Unfortunately things didn’t go our way and we lost on a bad bounce.”
Yet the Quakers had several opportunities to put the game away in regulation, despite getting off to a slow start.
American ended the first half with a 1-0 lead on a Jack Scott shot that hit the fingertips of Penn goalkeeper Ben Berg and trickled in, but the Quakers reemerged after halftime and dominated play.
“In the second half we came out and played very well and had American on their heels,” Penn coach Rudy Fuller said. “We had a couple of chances in the second half and we just couldn’t score.”
Although the Quakers were outshot 9-2 in the first half, they turned it around and took nine shots to the Eagles’ three in the second. That difference was largely attributed to the play of freshmen Travis Cantrell and Michael Kozak.
“They are inexperienced so it takes them a lot longer to settle in,” Levin said.
Both rookies were key factors in the Quakers’ only score. In the 56th minute, Cantrell picked up a loose ball and played it to Kozak, who slipped it through American’s back line. That set up junior Loukas Tasigianis for a one-on-one with the keeper, and he was able to convert.
Following Tasigianis’ mark, the Quakers seemed poised to pull away. They rattled off eight straight shots — five of which came off the foot of Cantrell (he finished with six total).
“In the attacking third, we are creating opportunities,” Tasigianis said. “Every time we get the ball we create chances one after another, but we are getting unlucky with our shots.”
By the second overtime period, however, the Eagles had regained control, outshooting Penn 5-0 before notching the decisive tally.
And while it is conspicuous that the Quakers entered the game following a 1-0 loss to Columbia on a penalty kick in the 80th minute while the Eagles were coming off another 2-1 double overtime win against Lafayette, Fuller refused to blame the loss on fate.
“We needed to be in the right mindset throughout the entire game,” Fuller said. “What we are dealing with right now is improving ourselves mentally.”
Although the Quakers have only won one of their last five contests, they insist that the loss will not affect their morale heading into their final five games — all of which are against Ivy opponents.
“We can beat anyone we play and we can lose to anyone we play,” Fuller said. “We are very much in the thick of things and there is not a game on the schedule that we can’t win.”
