HILLSBOROUGH, N.J. – The Penn State men's soccer team (2-0-0, 2-0-0 Big Ten) helped give head coach Jeff Cook his 200th career win as the 20th-ranked Nittany Lions beat Rutgers, 2-1, Tuesday afternoon at Iron Peaks Sports & Events.
Congratulations to head coach @jeffcook67 who just picked up his 2⃣0⃣0⃣th career win ‼️#WeAre pic.twitter.com/tpI0NQEeen
— Penn State Men's Soccer (@PennStateMSOC) February 23, 2021
"Today was a typically challenging and hard-fought Big Ten game at Rutgers," said head coach Jeff Cook. "I'm delighted that the team showed great resilience and determination to come away with an important road victory. Danny Bloyou scored an excellent goal early in the game with a cross from Alex Stevenson to give us the platform to go on and earn three important points in the conference standings. Peter Mangione scored his second game-winner and that was an excellent response to Rutgers tying the game. Once again, the strength of our entire squad was needed. We had several key contributions from the team and a first Penn State start in goal from Owen Elliott, and he was excellent throughout the 90 minutes."
Junior transfer Danny Bloyou kicked off the scoring for the Nittany Lions in the ninth minute with his first collegiate goal to give Penn State an early 1-0 lead. Sophomore Alex Stevenson played a long ball in from the right side that then skipped in to Bloyou and he finished it top shelf.
Rutgers (1-1-0, 1-1-0 Big Ten) was able to find the equalizer at 32:41 as junior Seth Kuhn got called for a foul to set up a Scarlet Knights penalty kick which Jackson Temple converted to make it 1-1.
Penn State then quickly retook the lead as senior Dax Hoffman had a shot blocked but the ball was deflected over to freshman Peter Mangione who finished inside the six to put the Nittany Lions up one with 10 minutes to play in the first half.
The Nittany Lions came out of the break looking to make it a multi-goal game, as sophomore Liam Butts, redshirt senior Brandon Hackenberg and redshirt sophomore Adam Laundree all took shots within the first three minutes of the second half. Butts' and Laundrees' shots were both saved by the Rutgers' keeper.
In the 50th minute, Rutgers' Cole Sotack was issued a red card and Penn State played the remaining 40 minutes man-up. Penn State outshot Rutgers 6-3 in those final 40 minutes, and in the game, 15-9, to hold on to the victory.
Redshirt freshman Owen Elliott made his first career start in net for the Nittany Lions and made three big saves en route to his first career win.
UP NEXT
Penn State returns to University Park to take on Michigan State on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 2 p.m. in Holuba Hall. The game will be streamed on Big Ten Network+.
GAME NOTES
- Head coach Jeff Cook picked up his 200th career win as a collegiate head coach. Cook has been a head coach for 23 total seasons, the last three as the leader of the Nittany Lions.
- Freshman Peter Mangione scored the game-winning goal, his second consecutive game doing so.
- Junior transfer Danny Bloyou scored his first collegiate goal and recorded points for the second consecutive game after having an assist against Maryland.
- Redshirt freshman Owen Elliott made his first career start in net for Penn State and earned the win. Freshman defender Tyger Evans also made his Penn State debut as a substitute.
- Penn State picks up its seventh-straight win over Rutgers.
- The Nittany Lions start the season 2-0 for the first time since the 2014 season when that team started out 3-0.