THACA, N.Y. – In front of a season-high crowd of 725 fans, the No. 22 Big Red men's soccer team put on an offensive show to open its Ivy League season with a 3-2 victory against Penn on Saturday night.
 
In a 10-minute stretch late in the first half, already down by one goal, the Big Red got goals from Conor Goepel, Daniel Haber and Stephen Reisert to go ahead 3-1 at halftime. Cornell surrendered a lucky second-half goal to the Quakers but held on for the win thanks to a strong defensive effort in the final half hour.
 
Cornell (9-0, 1-0 Ivy League) has now defeated Penn (2-8, 0-1) for the second consecutive season after not beating them since 2005 prior to last year. With the win, Cornell surpassed its season total from all of the 2011 campaign. Cornell has never started a season 9-0-0 before, and  the team has not had nine wins since the 2011 season.

The Big Red managed to surpass its goal total frorm all of 2011 with its third goal in the game. Cornell had 25 goals last season, and its third goal Saturday night was its 26th of 2012. Cornell also was able to increase the school record for consecutive games with a goal to 25. The team has not been shut out since the final game of 2010.
 
Saturday night's contest started out strong, with Cornell getting all of the chances on goal in the first 10 minutes. But out of nowhere, the Quakers broke through, as Louis Schott took a pinpoint shot from the left side of the penalty box and beat Big Red keeper Rick Pflasterer with his team's first shot of the game.
 
The next 20 minutes were fairly even with Cornell still get the better chances.  But in the 33rd minute, the Big Red's offensive finally struck. Taking the ball on the outside of the penalty box, Stephen Reisert cross the ball into the left side of the danger zone. Standing there was Conor Goepel, who chested the ball down and blasted it past Tyler Kinn to tie the game at 1-1.
 
Just three minutes later, Haber got his 14th goal of the year when Tyler Regan had a great run into the right side of the penalty area. Getting past all the defenders around him, Regan took a hard shot high on Kinn. The goalie deflected the shot up in the air, but its momentum was still going toward goal. Haber swooped in from behind the play and headed the ball in to be sure of the goal, and the Big Red was ahead 2-1. Haber has scored in six consecutive games.
 
Exactly four minutes after that, Reisert got his first goal of the season, and one that proved to be the game winner. The play once again began with Regan, who had the ball at the left side of the box. He slotted a pass through to Haber, who found Reisert all alone on the right side. Reisert nailed the ball past Kinn, putting the home team ahead 3-1.
 
Cornell closed out the game very strong on offense, getting multiple chances on goal but failing to capitalize. The Big Red took 20 shots total to Penn's nine.
 
Penn got its second goal on a fluke bounce, as Travis Cantrell fired a hard shot from distance toward goal. Getting in the way was the head of 6-foot-5 defender Patrick Slogic, who knocked the ball softly into the air but toward goal. Pflasterer could not change direction as the ball slowed down and looped over his head, bouncing off the crossbar and into the net.
 
Still, the Big Red defense played an excellent final 30 minutes, holding off Penn's every advance and winding down the final five minutes without allowing the Quakers a quality chance on goal.
 
Cornell now has a full week to prepare for its next game, an Ivy League contest at Harvard on Saturday at 4 p.m.

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