Men’s Soccer Begins Season with West Coast Trip
Penn State Men’s Soccer opened the 2016 campaign with a visit out west to face both Stanford and UC Berkeley over the weekend. The team earned a draw against the 2015 NCAA National Champions Stanford in double overtime on Friday while falling to UC Berkeley 2-1 Sunday in another overtime game.
With the draw on Friday, men’s soccer has not lost a season-opener under current head coach Bob Warming and have not lost a season opener since 2007. Although No. 1 Stanford started the game with a few promising shots on goal, Senior goalkeeper Evan Finney came up strong in the net for the Nittany Lions.
Senior forward Connor Maloney had the first big chance of the game after a splitting pass to freshman Pierre Reedy, but Stanford was able to clear the shot and keep the game level. Stanford came close to tying the game in the 44th minute following an attempted bicycle kick from Foster Langsdorf, but Finney came up big again to keep the match scoreless going into the half.
In the second half, each side had a few good chances which came up short, prompting two extra overtime periods. Both teams held out and the game ended in a draw after 110 minutes of play.
Two days later, the team headed to UC Berkeley where they suffered their first lost of the season, despite leading the game early on.
Connor Maloney opened up the scoring for the Nittany Lions in the sixth minute of play after a crossed ball from his younger brother, sophomore Austin Maloney and the Nittany Lions headed into halftime with a 1-0 lead over the Golden Bears.
Within minutes of the second half, UC Berkeley was able to tie the game with a goal to the lower right corner of the net from Nick Lima. After heading into overtime, Penn State was unable to keep the lead as Nick Lima scored again for the Golden Bears to hand Penn State their first lost of the season.
Penn State heads home with one win and one loss under the belt while making their home debut against James Madison University on Friday, September 2 at 7 p.m. at Jeffrey Field.
With the draw on Friday, men’s soccer has not lost a season-opener under current head coach Bob Warming and have not lost a season opener since 2007. Although No. 1 Stanford started the game with a few promising shots on goal, Senior goalkeeper Evan Finney came up strong in the net for the Nittany Lions.
Senior forward Connor Maloney had the first big chance of the game after a splitting pass to freshman Pierre Reedy, but Stanford was able to clear the shot and keep the game level. Stanford came close to tying the game in the 44th minute following an attempted bicycle kick from Foster Langsdorf, but Finney came up big again to keep the match scoreless going into the half.
In the second half, each side had a few good chances which came up short, prompting two extra overtime periods. Both teams held out and the game ended in a draw after 110 minutes of play.
Two days later, the team headed to UC Berkeley where they suffered their first lost of the season, despite leading the game early on.
Connor Maloney opened up the scoring for the Nittany Lions in the sixth minute of play after a crossed ball from his younger brother, sophomore Austin Maloney and the Nittany Lions headed into halftime with a 1-0 lead over the Golden Bears.
Within minutes of the second half, UC Berkeley was able to tie the game with a goal to the lower right corner of the net from Nick Lima. After heading into overtime, Penn State was unable to keep the lead as Nick Lima scored again for the Golden Bears to hand Penn State their first lost of the season.
Penn State heads home with one win and one loss under the belt while making their home debut against James Madison University on Friday, September 2 at 7 p.m. at Jeffrey Field.
