With just 10 minutes left in Saturday night’s Penn men’s soccer match against the Seton Hall Pirates, the Quakers trailed 1-0 and looked dead in the water, seemingly just minutes away from facing their second loss of the season.
The Quakers’ fate (2-1) seemed to be sealed, but junior forward Marco Bottene had other ideas.
In the 81st minute, Bottene scored the equalizer off an assist from senior midfielder Owen Sullivan. Two minutes later, he followed it up with another goal to take the lead and secure the win for the Quakers (2-1-0).
In the first period, both teams maintained similar offensive rhythms, and despite equal chances to score, Penn struggled to convert. Senior midfielder Jack-Ryan Jeremiah made the first attempt to score for Penn with a shot that missed just high over the crossbar. Bottene was also unsuccessful. Despite beating his man down the pitch and having one of the cleaner shots in the first period, his shot was off target.
The Pirates (2-2-2) were also aggressive on the offensive end with four shots on goal. In the 21st minute, Seton Hall converted on one of their attempts. A header from forward Tim Valentine off a cross into the box from midfielder Nico Rubio gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead over the Quakers heading into the second half.
To start the second half, the Quakers turned up the heat on the offensive side of the pitch. They took three shots in the first 10 minutes of the second period, but Seton Hall’s backline was making it particularly difficult for the Red and Blue.
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The Quakers were far more aggressive than they had been in their last matchup against Pitt. By the 80th minute of the second half, Penn had taken 12 shots, with four of them being on target. Despite all their scoring opportunities, the Red and Blue still found themselves down 1-0 to the Pirates as they entered the final 10 minutes of the game.
All looked lost as Penn could not connect on any shot up until that point. But in the 81st minute, Bottene took over. With the minutes counting down, the Quakers needed to jumpstart the offense to at least tie the match. At the 80:58 mark, Sullivan maneuvered past several Seton Hall defenders on the right side of the pitch before sending one to Bottene on the opposite backline. After two touches, Bottene snuck one past Pirates goalkeeper Devin Armstrong for the equalizer.
“I think, honestly, a lot of the games we did have chances,” Bottene said. “We felt comfortable on the ball, but maybe not hitting the net in that first half like we wanted to. And then conceding was also a gut punch, but the team went through, grinding things out through, and always held that belief in that togetherness, and it was just bound to happen that a goal was about to break.”
After 60 minutes down one goal, the game was tied. Just two minutes later, Bottene struck again. This time, it was junior midfielder Michael Howard who whipped a cross into the box to Bottene, who sent a bomb to the upper net, giving Penn the lead.
“I mean, to be honest, I don’t really remember a lot. I remember there was a cross whipped in, and someone put in a good challenge to get a bad clearance. The ball was fumbling edge on the box for me, and I just didn’t second-guess it. I just smashed it in,” Bottene said.
Following the clutch performance from Bottene, and the win over Seton Hall, the Quakers are in a third-place tie with Cornell in the Ivy League standings. Penn will look to keep their wins as they take on the Delaware Blue Hens at Rhodes Field on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
“I mean, at halftime, I think we were stressing the fact that we had to stay together,” coach Brian Gill said. “And I think that comes down to the players and their drive, their determination to get things level, and the guys pushed on and went for the extra one and got it, so credit to them.”