Sept. 13, 2014
| #16 PENN STATE at #11 INDIANA | |
| Saturday, Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m. | |
| Armstrong Field | Bloomington, Ind. | |
| MATCH DAY CENTRAL |
TV: ESPN2 -->Live Video on BTN Plus ($) |
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The 16th-ranked Nittany Lion men's soccer team opens its 2014 Big Ten campaign at No. 11 Indiana Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. The Nittany Lions begin their quest for a third straight title in the Big Ten's only match that features two Top 25 teams.
MATCH STORIES
• Nittany Lions travel to Indiana for Big Ten opener
• Penn State-Indiana represents the only Top 25 match up in Big Ten this week
• Nittany Lions went 1-0-1 last year against the Hoosiers
• Indiana has never lost a Big Ten opener (20-0-3)
• PSU is undefeated in its first four matches for the first time since 2004
• Connor Maloney leads the Nittany Lions with 4 goals
• PSU went 1-0-1 last week vs. Temple (W, 1-0) and James Madison (T, 1-1)
• Penn State without services of goalkeeper Andrew Wolverton, forward Mark Wadid due to red card suspensions
• Indiana has won three straight 1-0 games
B1G'S TOP TEAMS MEET IN BLOOMINGTON
In this weekend's only Top 25 matchup, Penn State and Indiana meet on Saturday night. Indiana have been the league's flag bearer with a 95-21-13 record (.787) in regular-season matches. The team with the second-best total: Penn State at 65-52-12 (.550). The Hoosiers and Nittany Lions are the only teams with winning records in regular-season play.
The rivalry has carried into tournament play as well. Indiana owns a 29-8-6 all-time record (.755) with 12 titles, while Penn State has a 28-16-5 (.623) mark with three crowns. PSU and Indiana are again the only teams with winning records in this category.
This year, Penn State and Indiana have identical 3-0-1 records, which tops the Big Ten during non-conference action. Moreover, Penn State will look to snap Indiana's 23-year streak of unbeaten starts to the conference season.
ABOUT THE HOOSIERS
The 11th-ranked Hoosiers come into Saturday's Big Ten opener with a 3-0-1 mark and a three-match shutout streak. Indiana has run off over 310 minutes of scoreless soccer since allowing a goal to No. 9 Georgetown in the season opener.
IU has out-scored its opponent 4-1 this season and has had four different goal scorers: Femi Hollinger Janzen, Patrick Doody, Trevor Swartz and Michael Riedford. Tanner Thompson has paced the passing attack with two assists in the early going, while leading the team in shot attempts (9).
In net, Colin Webb has played all 370 minutes this season, saving 11 shots for a .917 save percentage along with a 0.24 GAA.
The Hoosiers opened their season with a tournament at home where they drew with the Hoyas, 1-1, and defeated then-No. 12 Marquette, 1-0. Indiana then traveled to Notre Dame for a tournament in South Bend, defeating Kentucky, 1-0, in a thunderstorm-shortened contest and then Dartmouth, 1-0, on Monday, Sept. 8. Swartz scored the game-winner against UK, while Doody, a defender, tallied off a free kick against Darmouth in the 3rd minute.
SERIES HISTORY vs. INDIANA
All-Time Series: Indiana leads, 29-12-4
PSU Streak: 1 tie, 2 unbeaten
First Meeting: 9/16/1978, IU 2-0
Last Meeting: 11/15/2013, T, 0-0 (2OT)(IU advanced on PKs, 5-3)
Last PSU Win: 10/6/2013, 2-0
Last IU Win: 9/29/2012, 1-0
Last Draw: 11/15/2013, T, 0-0 (2OT)
Largest PSU Win: 3-1, 10/2/92; 2-0, 10/6/13
Largest IU Win: 4-0, 11/15/1997
PENN STATE IN BIG TEN OPENERS
Penn State is 13-9-1 in Big Ten openers, winning the past two against Wisconsin. This year's game against Indiana marks the 14th time Penn State has begun conference play against IU. PSU is 5-8-0 against the Hoosiers in Big Ten openers. On the flip side, the Hoosiers are 20-0-3 in their league openers.
PROVIDING TROUBLE FOR THE HOOSIERS
Penn State has historically been a pest to Indiana's romp through Big Ten play. The Nittany Lions are the only team to record more than seven wins against the Hoosiers. Of the returning six Big Ten opponents for Indiana, Penn State is the only one who has managed any kind of success. Indiana has winning percentage of .819 or better against Michigan State (.819), Michigan (.825), Wisconsin (.830), Northwestern (.871) and Ohio State (.877), while earning a .688 mark against PSU.
Last year, Penn State became the first team since 2007 to shutout the Hoosiers twice in a single season. PSU went 1-0-1, with a 2-0 win at Armstrong Stadium in the regular-season, before a 0-0 draw in the Big Ten Semifinals. Michigan State pulled the feat in 2007 with two wins (2-0 at Indiana, 1-0 at home in the Big Ten tournament).
NINE-MAN NITTANY LIONS DRAW JMU
Penn State opened strong at James Madison, scoring in the 11th minute on a Connor Maloney goal and holding a 10-3 shot advantage at halftime. The second half saw a line of strange events that led to the sendings off of goalkeeper Andrew Wolverton and Mark Wadid, a penalty kick save by backup goalkeeper Evan Finney and a last-gasp goal by the Dukes to force overtime. That goal snapped Penn State's nearly 360-minute shutout streak to star the year. In the end, niether team could end the game ahead.
Mikey Minutillo's header in the 11th minute dinged off the crossbar for Maloney's tap-in, his fourth of the year. Minutillo's chance was set up beautifully by Drew Klingenberg, the second-to-last connection in an 18-pass sequence that led up to the goal.
WELCOME TO THE SHOW, EVAN
Before Monday night's unexpected appearance at James Madison, Evan Finney's collegiate stat line read like Mike Titus's Club Trillion blog: lots of zeroes.
Finney, a sophomore, didn't play a minute last year as Andrew Wolverton saw all the action, and thus far, PSU has seen Wolverton in net for everything, until the 54th minute on Monday. When Wolverton was sent off, Finney went in cold and in the 77th minute, would face his first shot on goal: a penalty kick. Finney deftly met Josh Grant's attempt and kept PSU ahead, 1-0, the first of four saves on the vening. Finney played 56-plus minutes an is expected to make his Big Ten debut on Saturday at Indiana.
UNDEFEATED IN FIRST FOUR SINCE `04
The 16th-ranked Nittany Lions have started 3-0-1 in 2014, the first time since 2004 that they went undefeated in the first four matches. In 2004, Penn State started with draws against No. 6 North Carolina and No. 8 Wake Forest before beating Georgetown, drawing No. 2 St. John's and winning four straight against Virginia Tech, Akron, Tulsa and SMU. Ultimately, the 2004 team started the year 5-0-4 before their nine-game unbeaten streak ended against No. 6 Indiana, 2-1.
NITTANY LIONS OPEN 3-0-0 AGAIN
The 16th-ranked Nittany Lions, using a goal by Owen Griffith, downed in-state rival Temple on Friday night in front of 4,052 fans. The victory moved Penn State to 3-0-0 for the first time since 2012 and 40-18-8 all-time against the Owls. Andrew Wolverton earned his 26th shutout in the process and is three away from being the new Penn State shutout leader. Mark Wadid recorded his third assist in as many games on Griffith's winner.
MALONEY MASHES MARKERS
Sophomore Connor Maloney found his scoring groove at the end of 2013, notching a pair of wonder strikes from distance against nationally ranked Akron and UC Santa Barbara on the road. His scoring didn't taper off to start 2014, tallying four goals in four games, including his first two-goal affair vs. St. John's (Aug. 31), to pace the Nittany Lion attack.
Dating back to last season, Maloney has six goals in his past nine matches and has accounted for six of PSU's last nine goals. Also noteworthy is that Maloney has scored four goals on just seven shots for a remarkable .571 shooting percentage in the early going.
NEXT TIME OUT
Penn State has a quick turnaround in order to face nearby Saint Francis University on Tuesday at Jeffrey Field. The 7 p.m. contest will serve as an appetizer to PSU's Big Ten opener against Ohio State.
MACK BRADY MEMORIAL GAME
On Sept. 21, the Nittany Lions will host its second Mack Brady Memorial Game when Ohio State visits Jeffrey Field. Brady passed away on Dec. 31, 2012 due to an unexpected blood infection at the age of eight. To honor his life and love for soccer (specifically goalkeeping), Mack's parents, Christian and Elizabeth Brady, created the "Mack Brady Memorial Soccer Fund." The fund is an endowment for Penn State goalkeepers to help in recruiting, equipment, scholarships and other needs. Last season, PSU played then-No. 5 Cal to a 1-1 draw in front of over 3,000 fans.