Homecoming weekend provides huge opportunity for Penn men's soccer

For the Penn men’s soccer’s seniors, this weekend will be déjà vu to freshman year.

Saturday, the Quakers (6-8-1, 3-1-1 Ivy) take on rival Princeton on Homecoming, in a must-win game for a shot at the Ivy title on senior night. What else could you ask for?

“Looking back on the last four years, it’s gone so fast and it’s hard to believe for the seniors that this is conceivably the last time we will be playing on Rhodes Field,” senior captain Ethan Jones said. “The fact that it’s all coinciding with homecoming is fantastic also. It’s going to be definitely exciting and probably pretty emotional for the guys too.”

Jones believes that all of these factors only add to the Red and Blue’s advantage over the Tigers (6-8-1, 3-1-1). However, Princeton will still be tough competition.

“Over the course of the year, these two teams have proven that they are two of the top teams of the league,” coach Rudy Fuller said. “It’s obviously an important game for both teams and we are hoping that we have a big crowd there to support the team.”

In the 2010 season, the Quakers were in a similar position. They were undefeated in the Ancient Eight heading into the tail end of the season. Despite losing to both Harvard and Princeton, the Red and Blue advanced into the NCAA Tournament, defeating Bucknell before falling to Maryland.

“We’ve kind of entered a single elimination tournament,” Fuller said. “Our NCAA tournament starts Saturday, the only way for us to win the Ivies and the only way for us to get into the NCAA tournament is to win Saturday. That’s our approach.”

Princeton will be no easy opponent. With a similar schedule and an identical record, Saturday will be a game between two evenly matched teams.

“All signs are pointing to a huge day…This whole week in training we have just been focused on ‘This is just the next game,‘” Jones said. “Last week it was Brown, that was the next game, and now this is the next one. We’re not building it up more than it needs to be.”

And the rivalry between the Tigers and Quakers has even closer ties to Fuller.

Princeton coach Jim Barlow roomed with Fuller when they were assistant coaches in DC for American and Georgetown, respectively, and have been good friends since.

“It’s great to have a rivalry that’s so intense but with a lot of respect on both sides,” Fuller said.

In addition, Barlow’s brother played soccer at Penn while he was at Princeton and his wife played field hockey and lacrosse at Penn.

And Barlow’s squad will pose a formidable challenge.

“[The Tigers] are very strong technically and they are going to want to play soccer,” Jones said. “We’ve been able to break down teams pretty well regardless of their strengths, so really it’s going to come down to our approach.”

Fuller says that Princeton’s greatest strength is its ability to break teams down with possession. But there’s an easy way to counteract that.

“It’s all about putting the ball in the back of the net,” Fuller said.

And that’s what Penn will need to do to stay in contention.

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