PHILADELPHIA – Two goals less than a minute apart late in the first half propelled the University of Pennsylvania men's soccer team past Columbia 2-0 on Saturday night during Senior Night for the Quakers at Penn Park.
Quaker Notemeal
* The win was Penn's first over Columbia since 2011 with the Lions going 7-0-3 against the Red and Blue since 2012.
* Penn picked up its 11
th win of the season for just the eighth time in program history and fourth time since 1974.
* The Quakers improved to 5-0-0 at home this season and 19-6-6 overall under
Brian Gill.
*
Stas Korzeniowski scored his 10
th goal of the season for the Quakers, making him the first Quaker with at least 10 goals in a season since Steven Marcinkiewicz had 12 in 1995. It was also his fourth straight Ivy League match with a goal. Korzeniowski now has 30 points in 30 matches as a Quaker.
* Penn totaled just eight shots, its second-lowest total of the season, but put half of them on goal, just the second time in Ivy League play at least 50 percent of the team's shots went on-target.
How It Happened
The first 40+ minutes of the match went by relatively quietly, with Columbia mustering two long-distance on-target attempts resulting in easy saves for
Nick Christoffersen, adding three more off-target attempts.
Charlie Gaffney registered Penn's first shot of the night in the 31
st minute, with Columbia's keeper coming out of the six-yard box for the save.
In the 44
th minute,
Ben Stitz battled through a Columbia defender deep in the Lions' end to win possession, then crossed one to a waiting Korzeniowski at the top of the six-yard box, who headed home the first goal of the match.
Less than a minute later,
Charlie Gaffney's cross from the right side of the box was deflected near the goal line by the Lions keeper to the top of the six-yard box where
Brandon Curran knocked in the loose ball for a two-goal Quaker lead.
Penn's defensive intensity picked up in the second half, with the Lions not registering a shot attempt until the 68
th minute. It was the Quakers who had some of the best looks of the half, as both Gaffney and McGinnis had good opportunities to make it 3-0 or even 4-0, but the Columbia keeper made a pair of difficult saves to keep the Quakers from blowing the doors off the match.
Thank You Seniors
Before the match, Penn recognized the five members of the Class of 2023: Stitz, McGinnis,
Nick Schimbeno,
Jack Rosener, and
Will Schlatterer.
Up Next
Penn heads to Princeton next Saturday for a 4:00 p.m. kickoff to cap the 2022 regular season.
Penn's Path to a Championship
Penn's win paired with Cornell's 1-1 draw leaves the Quakers two points clear of the Big Red in the Ivy League standings.
The Quakers can clinch the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament next Saturday with a win or a tie, by virtue of owning the head-to-head tiebreaker over Cornell.
#FightOnPenn
