Aug. 31, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -
By Miranda Kulp, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Continuing season-opener tradition, the No. 23 Penn State men's soccer team opened the season with a victory against the University of San Francisco.
In front of a packed Jeffery Field crowd, both teams were striving for the first win of the 2015 season. Battling back and forth for the first goal, but the match remained scoreless until late in the second period.
"This felt like an NCAA Tournament game," said Head Coach Bob Warming. "It was tight physically and there were a lot of chances for both teams."
In the 72nd minute of the game, the dynamic freshmen duo Mac Curran and Austin Maloney scored for PSU with a cross kick in the bottom left corner. Penn State snatched a 1-0 lead to clinch the season-opening victory.
"We've all been training extremely hard during preseason for this first game so it was great seeing some of the younger guys make an impact," said senior goalkeeper Matt Bersano.
Following Friday's victory, the team entered Sunday's match focused on another win for the weekend.
Just like the season-opener, Penn State and Navy remained scoreless until the second period. After a foul on the Midshipmen, veteran PSU player Connor Maloney scored on the penalty kick in the 58th minute to get the Nittany Lions on the scoreboard.
Within ten minutes of Penn State taking the lead, Navy's Derek Vogel answered back by scoring an unassisted goal with only 22 minutes left in the match.
Head coach Bob Warming and his crew weren't going to give up that easy.
"I think especially in these situations, we have a very young team, it's very adverse conditions-I've got to try and create energy, and cheer them on" said Coach Warming. "I have to try and get a lot of energy, whatever that takes, I cannot be that guy in one of those situations that just says `ok guys go ahead and kill yourselves out there.' I have got to give the guys some energy and I think the guys really appreciate that."
Click here to read more on the GoPSUsports All-Sports Blog