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September 20, 2017
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's soccer team earned its second victory of the 2017 season and its second shutout with a 2-0 win over Detroit Mercy Wednesday, Sept. 23 at Jeffrey Field.
Sophomore Mitchel Bringolf (Montreal, Quebec) notched his first career points donning the Blue and White (2-3-2) as he scored the game-winner in the second half of action, while junior Mac Curran (York, Pa.) scored his third career goal and first since his freshman season.
As a team, Penn State outshot Detroit Mercy (4-2-1) 14-10, putting eight shots on goal compared to the Titan's three. The Blue and White notched its first multi-goal game since Oct. 21, 2016 when it defeated Rutgers 3-2 in double overtime.
Sophomores Christian Sload (Reading, Pa.) and Aaron Molloy (Dublin, Ireland) continued to test goalkeepers as both put two shots on net.
"It was a challenging game for us because number one, this team has scored a lot of goals this year, said head coach Bob Warming. "Number two, they play a system that almost no one in the country plays, they play man-to-man with a sweeper. Everyone else that we play in our conference, and almost everyone else in the country plays zone. All the challenges were very different and after the first 15 minutes I think they figured it out, and we got some fantastic passing patterns."
Spiro Pliakoks led the Titans with four shots, one of which landed on net, while Kyle Bandyk and Jake Poorman each had one shot against senior goalkeeper Evan Finney (San Francisco, Calif.).
The Nittany Lion strike started immediately as they took three-straight shots before allowing Detroit Mercy to put five on the board, one of which reached net. Penn State found three final shots in the half to cap of the first 45 minutes of play outshooting the Titans 7-5. However, the Blue and White would head into the locker room in a scoreless draw for the third-straight match.
Penn State wasted no time on its offense to start the second half, earning a corner kick in the 51st minute of the match. The corner turned into a scramble in front of the net that would find the foot of a crashing Bringolf. Bringolf tapped his foot on the ball into the back of the net from three yards out to give the Blue and White the 1-0 lead.
Curran gave Penn State its first multi-goal match of the season when he gathered the ball at his feet off a Detroit Mercy defender and ripped an one-touch shot from 18-yards out into the middle of the net to put the Blue and White up 2-0 on the Titans in the 69th minute.
Sload worked to put the Nittany Lions up by a third goal but was called offside, which marked the second Penn State goal of the game that was called offside by the referees. Detroit Mercy managed one final shot off a corner but Finney was able to scoop the ball to keep the shutout intact and allow Penn State to earn the 2-0 home victory.
Penn State hits the road Saturday, Sept. 23 for a Big Ten road contest against Wisconsin. The two squads will meet on the pitch at 8 p.m. ET with the match featured on BTN Plus. Fans can catch all the action live with a paid subscription.