Penn men’s soccer dominated the competition in its non-conference finale, powering past William & Mary 6-1. Senior midfielder Patrick Cayelli sealed the deal for the Red and Blue, wrapping up the evening with a hat trick.
After returning from Brown with a goalless tie, Penn (6-2-4, 1-0-2 Ivy) raised its record on Tuesday against the Tribe (2-8-3).
William and Mary began the game with a strong kickoff, putting Penn on defense right off the bat. However, the pressure didn’t last long. In the 7th minute, the Red and Blue worked their way toward the box where senior defender Oliver Pratt maneuvered past his defender, passing the ball to sophomore forward Romeo Dahlen who sent the ball into the net and raised the score 1-0.
Soon after, the Tribe returned on the attack, getting a shot on goal. Junior goalkeeper Phillip Falcon III blocked the shot but did not secure it, causing a William and Mary rebound which went wide in the 9th minute.
Building off of his earlier momentum, Dahlen doubled the Quakers’ lead in the 16th minute with a shot from outside the box, bringing the score to 2-0 Penn. That goal was his sixth of the season so far.
“It's awesome to get an early goal,” Dahlen said. “It sets the tone early, and we can continue from there. … Obviously, you want to carry that momentum forward into the next game. We know we have some important ones coming up, especially Cornell, we need three points there, so trying to take everything that we did well here and then sharpen up some other things.”
This marks Dahlen’s third game of the season where he scored two goals in a game, matching his performance against Loyola Maryland and Villanova.
Confident in its lead, Penn made its first set of substitutions in the 29th minute and followed up with more substitutions seven minutes later. Still, William and Mary was determined to push back. After being awarded a free kick with seven minutes left in the first half, the Tribe made another attempt to raise their score. However, Penn’s defense stood strong and sent the ball back into William and Mary’s half. Moments later, the Quakers received a free kick, but were unable to secure a shot.
While the remainder of the first half was characterized by a back-and-forth between the two teams — including a close shot by the Tribe with only one minute left in the half — neither were able to capitalize on their chances, and the score remained 2-0 heading into halftime. William and Mary exited the half with four shots, with two on goal.
Penn set an aggressive tone coming out of the locker room, keeping the ball well in front of the center line for the first few minutes.
Both teams traded shots on net, but each got blocked by the respective goalkeepers without a chance for a rebound. William and Mary followed Penn’s shot with an attack, ending in a corner kick, which was cleared out of the box.
In the 59th minute, junior defender Joaquin Niehenke sent a ball into the attacking third off a free kick. Pratt received it for a diving header inside the box, which went off target.
After several close calls, senior forward Jack Wagoner, assisted by junior defender Owen Sullivan and Niehenke, broke through with a goal in the 62nd minute.
“Pushing the momentum on the scoreboard is important,” Wagoner said. “Being able to get that third goal just kept building up confidence for the group. That hopefully opened the floodgates for the next three to come after that.”
After a shot on net by William & Mary in the 70th minute, Falcon made a block, and the Quakers cleared it out of their half. The Tribe returned with a spring down the field and a cross to William and Mary forward Alex Garrison, who shot a power ball to the top right of Penn’s goal, evading Falcon and bringing the score to 3-1 in the 72nd minute.
In the 76th minute, a foul inside the box earned Penn a penalty kick. Cayelli scored, raising Penn’s lead again to 4-1.
It must have felt like déjà vu for William and Mary when, in the 82nd minute, Hamilton Howes was fouled inside the box, giving Penn a second penalty kick. Cayelli shot to the bottom left, scoring his second goal and bringing the score to 5-1.
“I always think going up the first time [for a penalty] is a little more nerve wracking,” Cayelli said. “I trusted my routine and trusted my training on the first one, and then on the second one, I feel like you always have to change the way you go.”
Just minutes later, Cayelli achieved his first career hat trick, this time with a long ball from outside the box to further Penn's lead to conclude the matchup.
Despite the scoreless draw against Brown just a few days prior, the Red and Blue found their rhythm tonight to deliver a complete performance on both ends of the field. The team aims to keep that energy high when they return to Rhodes Field on Saturday to continue its final stretch of Ivy games and quest to defend its regular season title.
