Box Score

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (Sept. 14, 2011) – The Saint Francis University men's soccer team fell 1-0 on the road to 15^th-ranked Penn State Wednesday night.

Penn State (5-1) controlled the ball and the tempo of the game for the majority of the match as evidenced by its 15-shot production, to Saint Francis' (2-3-1) three. Despite the high number of shots, just four were on target for PSU. In addition to the shot differential, the Nittany Lions gained nine corner kicks in the contest, while the Red Flash were shutout in that statistical category.

“Penn State is a good team and they made it difficult for us to impose our style,” head coach Michael Casper said. “I thought we battled hard and fought until the very end which I am proud of.”

At the 18:55 mark of the game and coming off of a corner kick, Penn State's Brian Forgue took a short pass from one of his teammates in front of the net to poke in, what would become, the game winning tally.

Saint Francis' defense kept them in the match throughout the length of the game. The Red Flash defenders obstructed many attempts from Penn State, putting themselves in the crossfire of Nittany Lion shots.

As the game neared its end, play between both sides became more aggressive with a total of 21 combined fouls. Penn State committed 11 of the fouls, and Saint Francis committed the other 10. Junior David Butler (Baltimore, Md./Loyola Blakefield) received two yellow cards in the match, accompanied by a red card, forcing him to leave the game and the Red Flash to play down a man for the 15 minutes remaining in the contest.

Darius Motazed (North Vancouver, Canada/Sentinel Secondary) got the call to start in net and played the full 90 minutes, allowing the one goal and making three saves. Wayne Tiller (Magnolia, Del./Caesar Rodney), Makala Hairston (Baltimore, Md./Calvert Hall College) and Nick Kolarac (Pittsburgh, Pa./West Allegheny) registered one shot each for the Flash, with Tiller forcing the Penn State net minder to make a stop.

“We still have some work to do to be able to win that game but I feel we are getting better as we have challenged ourselves against some very good opponents,” Casper said.

Saint Francis returns home Sunday Sept. 18 for a non-conference battle with St. Bonaventure at the Stokes Soccer Complex at 1 p.m.