Growth means learning from one’s mistakes, and Penn men’s soccer is growing into a team that can adapt and push forward with adversity after its 2-0 win against Dartmouth following last week’s tough loss to Cornell.
With the weekend win, Penn (7-3-4, 2-1-2 Ivy) is in a strong spot to secure the fourth seed and play in the Ivy tournament. After its first conference loss against Cornell, Penn learned to fill in its defensive holes and made impactful improvements in the game against Dartmouth (3-6-3, 2-3 Ivy).
The Quakers entered the game eager to overtake the Big Green in the Ancient Eight rankings. As soon as the starting whistle was blown, both teams held nothing back. The Big Green attempted four shots in the first half, but the Red and Blue’s offense was ready to punish them with attempts of its own.
The first half was contact-heavy. Penn had four fouls while Dartmouth had two fouls and a yellow card. Penn gave Dartmouth a headbutt scare from senior defender Oliver Pratt. The Quaker defense was tested early on when Dartmouth had two free kick attempts in close succession. The first half ended scoreless for both teams, but Penn’s offense was just now getting started: the Quakers had four shots on goal compared to Dartmouth’s one during the first 45 minutes.
The Red and Blue continued the strong offensive push in the second half with sophomore midfielder Aiden Frick making a shot attempt just over one minute in. This push was carried on by senior midfielder Patrick Cayelli, who made the first goal of the matchup in the 67th minute. Cayelli’s strong offensive effort kept the Big Green on their toes, leaving them unable to keep up with the Red and Blue in the second half.
Soon after Cayelli made his goal, sophomore midfielder Marco Bottene made the second goal for the Quakers in the 71st minute. This was Bottene’s third goal of the season, and the goal was what Penn needed in order to solidify the win. Penn’s momentum did not end there: soon after its second goal, the Red and Blue went on to make another four more shot attempts against the Big Green. Penn’s defense limited the Big Green to only three shots on goal for the entire matchup compared with Penn’s ten.
For the majority of the game’s second half, the Quakers were playing keep-away against Dartmouth, having longer possession of the ball and making many more offensive pushes than in the first half. In the second half alone, the Quakers had attempted double the amount of shots they had in the first half. Penn’s defense became more aggressive, making it difficult for the Big Green to come together and make gains.
The Cayelli and Bottene offensive duo was nearly impossible for Dartmouth to stop. The pair collectively made 60% of the shots that were on goal and nearly half of all shots.
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Coming off of a loss, Penn’s team was hungry for this win that would place it above Dartmouth in the Ivy League rankings. The Quakers will now go on to one of their final two games of the regular season with both taking place on Rhodes Field. This week, the Quakers will host Yale, looking to continue their winning streak.
