Sep 3, 2013
By Mike Esse, GoPSUSports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - It's no secret that the Penn State men's soccer team features a lot of youth in 2013, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
After two 1-0 wins against Radford and Central Connecticut State this weekend, it is also became apparent that the youth is more than capable to create scoring opportunities this season for the Nittany Lions.
Combining with a veteran defense and goaltender, true freshmen Mark Wadid and Connor Maloney gave Penn State soccer fans a glimpse of the future this weekend as both were involved in the two goals Penn State scored in its weekend victories.
Friday night against Radford, after having numerous scoring opportunities, Wadid came through with a goal in the 69th minute notching his first point as a Nittany Lion.
"It feels great," Wadid said. "I was relieved. I had a couple chances I could have finished in the first half and I kept my composure and then I popped one in in the second half."
Wadid's performance impressed head coach Bob Warming, not only because of his first career goal, but the pace in which he played and the amount of opportunities he had against Radford.
"He's pretty fast, isn't he?" Warming said. "That's what good strikers do, though. Good strikers keep shooting and want to get goals and forget about the misses pretty quick."
On Sunday it was Maloney who provided a cross that redshirt-junior Eli Dennis headed into the net in the 80th minute to break a scoreless game against Central Connecticut State.
Maloney laid the cross perfectly to Dennis, who notched his first goal at Penn State, one game after getting his first point as a Nittany Lion on Friday against Radford.
"Connor served a great ball and I was lucky to be at the right place," said Dennis. "As soon as he hit it I sad wow I have to put this away. He put it on a silver platter. I didn't have to do anything, he did all of the work."
After captain Owen Griffith went down on Friday night with a minor ankle sprain, Warming looked right to his freshman to step up on Sunday and they did exactly that.
"We still have a bunch of guys that are out right now and we needed guys to step up," he said. "That was my message to them: 'you're not a freshman anymore, you are one of our players and we need you to make an impact on the game when you come in.'"
"I thought all of them really responded and they were great."
It is a luxury for Warming to be able to have a reliable group of defenders in goaltender Andrew Wolverton and center back's Martin Seiler and Akil Howard to be able to gel with his young group of scorers on the offensive end.
They certainly were able to gel Sunday night and Warming was satisfied with that after showing his team video of Friday's match against Radford and seeing them improve in a few key areas.
"I showed them video clips of our team and showed them a few things we needed to do to have a little ball circulation and spread the field out a little bit better," he said Sunday night after his team's second 1-0 shutout of the weekend.
"Tonight, in that phase of the game it was absolutely outstanding. Ball circulation and movement was incredible."
The two shutouts are even more special for this Penn State team as they come in the first two games the goaltenders have worn a patch for Mack Brady, who passed away unexpectedly at the age of eight this past year.
Penn State soccer will further honor Brady, who had a love for soccer and goalkeeping, on Friday Sept. 13 at Jeffrey Field for the inaugural Mack Brady Game against California with all proceeds benefiting the Mack Brady Soccer Fund.
Penn State will travel to Rutgers and St. John's this weekend before returning home on Sept. 13.