GAME INFORMATION
GAME #8: Cornell vs. Penn
DATE: Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008
TIME: 4:30 p.m.
SITE: Ithaca, N.Y. - Berman Field (1,000)
2008 RECORDS: Cornell - 1-6; Penn - 6-0-3
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 57-28-12
LAST MEETING: Penn won, 2-1, on Nov. 17, 2007, in Philadelphia, Pa.
LIVE STATS: http://sidearmstats.com/cornell/msoc
The Cornell men's soccer team opens up Ivy League play on Saturday, playing host to Penn in a 4:30 p.m. contest at Berman Field. Saturday's game is the first game of a soccer doubleheader with the Cornell women also facing the Quakers in the nightcap.
HEAD COACH BRYAN SCALES
In his 11th season directing the Cornell men's soccer program, Bryan Scales has the Big Red primed for a push to the NCAA tournament in 2008. He has a 61-91-16 career record as the head coach of the Big Red. In 2001, Scales was named the New York Region Coach of the Year after leading the Big Red to a 9-4-3 overall mark and a No. 22 national ranking. Scales, a 1991 graduate of Hartwick College, was a four-year letterman with the Hawks and a two-year starter, helping Hartwick to a pair of NCAA tournament berths. He is assisted by Joe Schneck, in his third year, and Nenad "Ziggy" Zigante, in his sixth season.
ABOUT THE BIG RED
The Big Red, playing just its second home game of the season, played a spirited contest against Binghamton on Sept. 26, dropping a 1-0 contest against the Bearcats at Berman Field. Sophomore Scott Brody made a trio of stellar saves to keep the Big Red within striking distance, including a pair of point-blank stops in the second half on a Binghamton breakaway. Senior Joe Yonga leads the Big Red offense with four points on a pair of goals, while Brody has a 2.07 goals-against average and a .657 save percentage.
ABOUT PENN
The Quakers have an impressive 6-0-3 mark on the season entering Ivy League play and are coming off a 3-2 victory over Villanova on Wednesday night. Penn is paced by Andrew Ferry's 11 points on four goals and three assists, both of which lead the team. Penn's prolific offense has scored 19 goals in the first nine games, with 10 different players finding the back of the net, while the defense has been rock solid, allowing just four goals against. In goal, Drew Healy has played every minute this season for the Quakers, posting a 0.41 goals-against average and a .882 save percentage to go along with seven shutouts.
THE SERIES WITH PENN
Penn leads the all-time series, 57-28-12, and won last year's meeting, 2-1, on Nov. 17, in Philadelphia. Matt Bouraee got the Big Red on the board in the 20th minute last season, but a pair of second-half goals cost the Big Red in the match, with the game-winner coming by Omid Shokoufandeh in the 89th minute. Cornell's last win against Penn came in 2005, a 2-1 victory on Oct. 1 in Philadelphia. Under Cornell head coach Bryan Scales, the Big Red is 5-5 against the Quakers.
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST
Senior Joe Yonga entered his final season in a Big Red uniform without having scored a goal, but he has already struck for a pair of tallies this season to lead the Cornell offense. Yonga, who has played nearly every position on the field for Cornell during his time on East Hill, scored the season's first goal against New Hampshire and then tallied the game-winner against Lafayette.
COMING UP HUGE
In soccer, penalty kicks are sometimes considered something of a formality, but that has not been the case for Cornell's opponents over the last week. Sophomore goalkeeper Scott Brody saved a pair of kicks from the penalty spot last week, first recording a stop on Wednesday against Albany before making another save on a penalty kick against Lafayette on Sunday. Opponents are 0-for-2 against the Big Red this season in penalty kicks, while the Big Red has yet to be awarded a penalty kick.
SHORT HANDED
Cornell was without the services of junior midfielder J.J. Bain for the victory over Lafayette on Sunday after the Columbus, Ohio, native received a pair of yellow cards in the loss to Albany on Sept. 17. After sitting out the required one match, Bain was back in uniform for the Sept. 26 contest against Binghamton.
AND THE AWARD GOES TO....
Senior Joe Yonga and junior J.J. Bain were both selected to the all-tournament team last weekend at the Days Inn Classic for their play against Bucknell and New Hampshire. Yonga scored the lone goal for the Big Red off a corner kick in the loss to New Hampshire, while Bain was solid in the midfield for the Big Red. For Yonga, this marks the second time in his career he has earned all-tournament team honors, as he was named to that spot as a junior when the Big Red won the UK Nike Soccer Classic in Lexington, Ky., to open the 2007 season.
BRODY IN GOAL
Sophomore Scott Brody has made a move to make himself the number one option in goal for the Big Red, as he has started in each of the last five games. Brody has a 2.07 goals-against average and a .657 save percentage in just over 521 minutes this season for the Big Red.
FOREIGN INFLUENCE
Cornell's roster in 2008 has a pair of players who hail from overseas, as senior David Browning and freshman Pedro Pereira are natives of Belgium and Brazil, respectively.
WEST COAST BLUES
Cornell's third-ever trip to the West Coast ended with losses to Cal and Stanford, dropping the Big Red's all-time record on the left coast to 2-4-0. Cornell went 1-1 on its last trip to Cal and Stanford in 1991, then played in a tournament in Oregon in 2004, where it defeated Gonzaga, 1-0, but fell to Oregon State, 5-0.
AYE, AYE, CAPTAIN
A trio of seniors will serve as captains for the Big Red this season. David Browning, Jarid Siegel and Joe Yonga will share the captain's armband this year.
TOUGH BREAK FOR SIEGEL
Jarid Siegel, who was granted a fifth year of eligibility by the Ivy League after missing the 2006 and 2007 seasons due to injury, will miss his third straight season after suffering yet another injury during the summer. Despite the injury, Siegel served as a captain in 2007 and has again been selected to that role in 2008.
ONE SOLID SEASON
Junior Matt Bouraee exploded onto the scene a year ago with nine goals and four assists to lead the Big Red on his way to second-team All-Ivy League honors. The outburst for Bouraee not only was far above his performance of his freshman season, in which he scored a pair of goals, but was also just two points shy of tying him for the ninth-best individual season in Cornell men's soccer history. Bouraee had 22 points, two shy of the 24 put up by Derl Derr (1950), Jim Rice (1977) and Adam Skumawitz (2000). Additionally, his nine goals were one shy of tying him with six other players for 10th place all-time in Cornell history.
HOMEWARD BOUND
The season opening trip to California was a homecoming for Cornell senior Ed Chang, who hails from Palo Alto. Chang has appeared in eight games for the Big Red over the past three seasons after missing the 2005 year due to injury, and has appeared in four contests so far this season.
MILESTONE WATCH
Cornell head coach Bryan Scales is now fourth among all coaches in Big Red men's soccer history with 61 career victories. Scales trails only Jack Writer (91), Nicholas Bawlf (86) and Dave Sarachan (64) in career coaching wins. Additionally, Scales is in his 11th season, marking the third-longest tenure of any coach in Cornell history. Only Bawlf (27 seasons) and Writer (13 seasons) were on the Cornell sidelines longer.
UP NEXT
Cornell returns to Ivy League play next Saturday, traveling to Harvard for a 2 p.m. contest against the Crimson in Cambridge, Mass.
