Sept. 29, 2014 UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -
By Matt Allibone, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- The Penn State men's soccer team set a school record on Sunday against Michigan.
Well technically, the record belongs to Andrew Wolverton. The senior goalkeeper notched his team record 29th career shutout as the Nittany Lions defeated Michigan 1-0.
At the same time, it goes a bit deeper than that. While Wolverton has been a lynchpin for the Nittany Lions for four years, shutouts are the ultimate mark of team play. It takes solid defense, enough offense and great goalkeeping to pull one off.
On Sunday, the Nittany Lions received all of that. Connor Maloney scored his conference-leading seventh goal, the backline allowed just four shots on net, and the goalkeeper known as "Wolvie" made a terrific diving save to preserve the win.
"I told the whole team after the game, I'm going to make sure in the record books and in the media guide, that all of their names are next to Andrew's for playing in front of him for this shutout," head coach Bob Warming said. "Our team is a team and it takes a whole team to get a shutout and Andrew understands that."
Against the Wolverines, Penn State's defense certainly earned that right, but it wasn't as if Wolverton didn't also earn the mark for himself.
With 8:50 remaining and the Lions holding on to a one-goal lead, Michigan forward Tyler Arnone took a pass from James Murphy and fired a shot from 18-yards out to the right corner of the net.
For a moment, it seemed as if the ball was headed in. Then came the hand of the sprawling 6-foot goaltender, knocking the ball away and keeping the shutout intact.
"We don't give him a whole lot to do so it was great to see him make a play when he had to," Warming said jokingly. "It was a great save, and that's what he trains for. Eventually, when you're playing against great talent they're going to break through and you're going to need to make a save."
The defense would take over in the final minutes, as the Wolverines would bring their entire team up in a final last-ditch attempt to tie the game.
Randy Falk and Kyle MacDonald would both make big stops to prevent Michigan from getting a shot on goal before the clock finally hit zero.
Having given up two goals and ten shots on goal during Wednesday's 6-2 win over Penn, the Nittany Lions and their backline of Eli Dennis, Mike Robinson and Mason Klerks were extra motivated to get back to the play that had led to just one allowed goal in the team's first seven games.
"I'm so proud of the team for playing great team defense," Warming said. "We always have a game plan but I didn't need to say anything special to them. There were plenty of things we wanted to get done today because playing in the Big Ten is always tough."
In true Penn State fashion, the game would go into halftime tied 0-0, until the Nittany Lions finally got on the board in the second half thanks to none other than Maloney.
The sophomore entered the game with six goals in the first eight games of the season, and he produced once again, taking a beautiful cross from senior Mikey Minutillo and putting it past Adam Grinwis from six yards out to get the Lions on the board 11 minutes into the second half.
While Maloney has clearly been Penn State's most effective goal-scorer this season, Warming again maintained that his team doesn't have to become dependent on any one player.
Once again, the Nittany Lions win as a team, and Maloney's ability to score depends on his teammates putting him in the right position to get the ball in the net.
"Something we like about our team is that everyone can score goals and we can score in a variety of ways," Warming said. "Mikey [Minutillo] can score, Mark [Wadid] can score, Kyle [MacDonald] can score, Owen [Griffith] can score. We just kept fighting and fighting and eventually we were going to get one in."