Men’s Soccer Cruises through the Rain to Beat Saint Peter’s

Story posted September 11, 2011 in CommRadio, Sports by Chris McKeown

Battling through rain ranging from light drizzle to torrential downpours, the Penn State Nittany Lions men’s soccer team cruised comfortably to a 3-0 victory over the Saint Peter’s College Peacocks (0-4-0) Friday night at Jeffrey Field.

Under the bright lights and with Mackenzie Arment out of action due to a foot injury, the Nittany Lions (4-1-0) stepped their game up in his absence.

The first half saw terrific hustle out of both sides. The Nittany Lions were somewhat sloppy out of the gate, however, with eight offsides calls against them in the first half. Penn State head coach Bob Warming was the first to admit that his team had numerous opportunities that slipped away early on.

“I think we were very impatient in the first half,” Warming said. “Our forwards were just running away from the ball and it showed in the offsides calls.”

One of those missed opportunities came on a corner kick off the head of junior midfielder Daniel Parr narrowly missed hitting the inside right post in the eighteenth minute of play. Numerous of shots sailed high and wide of the net in the first half off the feet of juniors Minh Vu and Hasani Sinclair.

The Peacocks were truly fortunate to go into the half tied with the Nittany Lions. Lightning bolts littered the sky over Jeffrey Field during halftime and delayed the start of the second half by slightly over an hour.

Within the first minute of play after the break, Vu’s corner to sophomore Jordan Tyler’s head popped the ball straight up in the air. Sinclair rose to the occasion and headed it home to give the Lions their first lead of the game.

“In the second half, we did a much better job of defending, keeping them locked on one side, and being composed with our attack,” Tyler said.

In the 60th minute, Tyler took the ball in the box and found the back of the net on a beautiful goal to put Penn State up 2-0. Tyler would put the game completely out of reach in the 75th minute when he and junior Daniel Burnham had a 2-1 advantage with the goalie. Burnham passed to Tyler who knocked home a line drive goal, giving the Nittany Lions a 3-0 lead that they would never relinquish.
Despite winning 3-0, Coach Warming was a bit discouraged by the weather forcing the fans to empty the stadium.

“It’s just a shame that all our fans had to clear out,” said Warming. “We love playing at home and love when the students are here and having a good time. Having to clear the stands… it’s still great to win but I know our students would have enjoyed watching us score two goals.”

Tyler was pretty excited about his performance after the game.
“It felt great,” he said. “Coach has been telling me that he expects big things out of me and these were my first points of the season. I was happy that I was able to get them in this game because there was the possibility of the game being called short due to the weather.”
Tyler also said that he thought the weather had little effect on his team’s play.

“Last weekend when we were at Ohio State for a tournament, we were actually delayed an hour and a half,” he said. “I felt that we were used to it and it didn’t really affect us.”
Coach Warming was encouraged by what he saw out of his sophomore forward.

“I think the light bulbs are coming on for him,” he said of Tyler. “I thought Vu was a great strike partner for him. He draws a lot of attention and it set up opportunities for Jordan. Good performance and really a good performance by a lot of guys in the second half.”

Penn State plays next on September 14 at 7 p.m. when Saint Francis (1-1-1) visits Jeffrey Field. Listen in to ComRadio for full coverage of that contest.


Chris McKeown is a sophomore majoring in Broadcast Journalism. To contact him, email csm5206@psu.edu.