If Penn wants any shot at revenge for last season’s 2-1 home loss to Columbia, it must first stop one of the Ivy League’s most explosive scorers: forward Bayo Adafin.
“He’s a special talent,” Quakers coach Rudy Fuller said. “He is as good as it gets up top and we didn’t handle him as well as we could have last year.”
The Red and Blue (4-3-3, 0-0-1 Ivy) certainly did very little handling in last season’s matchup, as Adafin — who currently leads the Lions in goals (four), points (eight) and shots (19)— came up huge in the second half by delivering the deciding goal in the 69th minute.
However, in tomorrow’s 4:00 contest in the Big Apple, the struggling Lions (2-5-1, 0-1-0 Ivy) will encounter a completely different Penn squad from the one they witnessed last fall, and perhaps even from the team that Quakers fans have been watching all September.
After a string of poor performances against Temple and Penn State , the Red and Blue have rebounded nicely this past week with a tie against Ivy foe Cornell and a 2-0 shutout of a dangerous Lehigh squad.
Though the Quakers’ offense has turned it on in impressive fashion lately (two of sophomore Christian Barreiro’s team-leading six goals came against Lehigh ), it’s the Penn defense that must be key for the upcoming stretch of October conference games.
While the back line has been strong since suffering the 5-0 blowout at Penn State, the group will need to be a little more consistent down the stretch if Penn hopes to repeat as Ivy League champions.
“The heart and soul of Penn Soccer is usually its defense, and we’ve been letting in a lot more goals than we’re used to,” junior forward Tobi Olopade said. “We’re moving in the right direction with the shutout [against Lehigh]. We’ve got to keep on doing the same things against Columbia.”
In addition to containing Adafin, Penn must overcome its road woes. The Empire City rarely proves a safe haven for visiting teams, and road games have already been problematic for the Quakers. While they have put up a stalwart 3-1-1 record at Rhodes Field, their away split (1-2-2) is much less inspiring.
A road win to kick off a long stretch of Ivy League games would do wonders for the suddenly rejuvenated Penn squad, and Fuller explained that as long as his team plays with a high energy level and consistently pressures the ball defensively, the Quakers should put up a good fight tomorrow.
“They came here onto our own field and they wanted it a little bit more [last year]; they outworked us,” Olopade said. “We’ve got to make sure for the full 90 minutes that we’re first to every ball.”
