Oct. 6, 2014 UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -
By Matt Allibone, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Connor Maloney settled himself and took a deep breath.
There was just under 24 minutes remaining in the Penn State men's soccer team's contest against Rutgers, and the star sophomore was having a frustrating night.
He and his teammates had dominated the ball possession and gotten off shot after shot, yet the game remained scoreless. To top it off, he had just been called for a yellow card after a foul.
"It hurts the team if you get out of place," Maloney said. "You've got to keep your head in the game at all times and don't let your guard down."
Keeping his focus, Maloney once again delivered for the Nittany Lions as he has so many times this season.
With the game still scoreless and less than 12 minutes remaining, the 5-foot-6 forward found himself on a breakaway after receiving a long pass from Brian James. Without panicking, Maloney deftly moved to his right to get separation from Rutgers goalie David Greczek and put the ball into the back of the net, giving the Nittany Lions their only goal in a satisfying 1-0 victory.
"I saw the ball in flight, and coach always says, 'be a beast at all times, regardless if you're small or not,'" Maloney said. "I kind of waited and [Greczek] went down right away and I took a touch past him and it was in the goal."
Maloney's game winner was Penn State's 20th shot of the game. By the end of the night, the Nittany Lions had outshot the Scarlet Nights by a whopping 22 to 5 margin.
A minute into the game, it didn't seem like the Blue and White would need more than 78 minutes to score. Just 10 seconds after the opening whistle, Maloney ripped a shot that looked good until it ricocheted off the post.
"No I didn't think it would take that long [to score]," Maloney said. "It came to me and I thought why not have a shot first play of the game."
For the rest of the first half, the Nittany Lions would create numerous chances without being able to get the ball past Greczek, who played terrific and stopped five shots in the opening 45 minutes.
Six Lions would get shots off in the first half, with Maloney (two), Owen Griffith (two), Drew Klingenberg (two) and Mikey Minutillo (four) all taking multiple attempts. By the end of the period, Penn State had shot 12 times without allowing a single shot by Rutgers.
It would take until the 55th minute for the Scarlet Nights to finally get a ball on net, when JP Correa nailed a ball that Andrew Wolverton knocked away.
"It was weird because they had three strikers that were pressuring our backs pretty good," senior midfielder Owen Griffith said. "That's just a credit to those three backs (Eli Dennis, Mason Klerks, and Mike Robinson). Everything we can do is just dedication from those guys to help Wolvie get more shutouts."
As the second half wore on and the Lions' opportunites continued to come up just short, it seemed like just matter of time before they managed to break Rutgers' defense.
Still, with the possibility of overtime looming, Griffith and his teammates knew they needed to stay focused.
"[The thought of overtime] is there, especially when you've got tired legs," Griffith said. "If we hadn't gotten them in regulation I think we would have gotten them in overtime."
Head coach Bob Warming agreed that while an eventual goal seemed likely, nothing is ever certain in soccer.
"Soccer is a funny game," Warming said. "We got 22 shots and they weren't like wild shots from 35 yards out. I don't know many college soccer teams that can play like we did tonight."
Now a member of the Big Ten, Rutgers gave Penn State the type of battle it is used to facing from its conference opponents, a low scoring, grind-it-out affair that wasn't decided until the very end.
If there was one thing that Warming was proud of besides his team, it was the performance of Penn State's fans and student section. A total of 2,532 fans turned up on a 40-degree night to watch the Nittany Lions improve to 10-0-1 on the season.
"I love our students," Warming said. "They're so funny...the guy over there in the referee uniform and shorts when it's freezing out. They kept things clean and our kids did a great job."