Sept. 30, 2013
By Mike Esse, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Prior to Penn State's 2-1 win at West Virginia Wednesday all four of the Nittany Lions' (6-2-1, 1-0) wins came in 1-0 decisions. In their Big Ten opener on Sunday against Wisconsin (5-2-1, 0-1) Penn State continued the scoring trend netting three goals in a 3-1 victory.
Despite a tally from Martin Seiler in the 10th minute head coach Bob Warming needed to make a change in the second half after a Badger goal in the 31st minute tied the contest after the first 40 minutes.
"Even though we got that goal I thought we were playing with low energy," said Warming. "We decided in the second half to press so we sent our outside backs to their wide midfield players and pressed the whole time."
The decision to press rejuvenated the Penn State offensive attack as the ball was primarily in the Badger zone for the majority of the second half.
Both of the Nittany Lions' second half goals illustrated that rejuvenation. Although it is scored as an own goal, the second Penn State goal of the game was a product of the changed second half game plan.
Shane Campbell beat a Badger defender on a run down the sidelines in the Wisconsin zone, dumped the ball to Jordan Tyler and Tyler was able to get a shot on net, which eventually forced the own goal.
Five minutes later Penn State again controlled the pace this time with Randy Falk who fed a perfect cross to Eli Dennis who finished the scoring try.
Penn State netted two goals and had opportunities to get even more in the second half, something that was far from normal for the Nittany Lions in non-conference play.
"I felt like we could have had five (goals) in the second half and that's pretty unusual," said Warming. "I told (Penn State women's soccer head coach) Erica Walsh earlier in the week after they won that 6-1 and said I would just love to know what that feels like."
Warming and his squad certainly found out on Sunday. Now, the Nittany Lions are clicking and it is a very satisfying feeling for a group that eyes their second straight conference title.
"For me as a defender it is always great to score three and it takes pressure off of us defenders playing many games only winning 1-0 battling to the 90th minute is always tough," said Seiler.
"It's like we finally figured out how to score, which is good," he laughed.
An important part of the Penn State goal scoring attack is the continued improvement of Tyler who returned in 2013 after being sidelined last year with an ACL injury.
Tyler notched a goal against West Virginia and tallied six shots against the Badgers adding another weapon for Penn State.
"It's always hard coming off an ACL injury and I just felt like coming back I was getting frustrated I wasn't scoring and last game I scored my first goal and now it's just time to keep rolling," said Tyler.
Penn State will look to keep its undefeated home record alive as they host Saint Francis (Pa.) on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Luckily for Warming, he can rotate a number of players in and out of games during this tough string of tough non-conference and conferences matches.
"We played a lot of guys today and I feel like every player we bring in the game is just as good as the guy we took out," said Warming. "I don't think we drop off at all. They are different but they all bring something to the game."