Penn State Tops Syracuse for its First Win of the Season Amid Rainy Conditions

posted August 30, 2021 in CommRadio, Sports by Dale Ostrander

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State got its first win of the season with a 3-0 dominating performance against former northeast rival the Syracuse Orange.

Penn State played in crazy weather yet again, with the threat of lightning in the area and consistent rain throughout the game. However, the harsh conditions did not slow down the Nittany Lions, who started off the game with a header to get them on the board first.

Seth Kuhn provided a beautiful pass to Peter Mangione who was able to sneak a header into the Syracuse goal in the fourth minute to give Penn State the early 1-0 lead. That would be the end of the scoring in the first half for both teams because of a dominant showing from goalie Kris Shakes.

Shakes provided an excellent performance for the Nittany Lions between the irons to keep Syracuse off the scoreboard. After the first goal for Penn State, Syracuse carried the momentum and aggression for the rest of the first half. There were 15 shots on goal for Shakes to have to defend for the Nittany Lions. Coach Jeff Cook noticed the strong showing for Shakes and knew he was capable of such a dominant performance.

“Kris is, as you saw, really brave, super athletic, reads the game extremely well, a really great night tonight,” Cook said.

The rain and the lightning went away at Jeffrey Field to start the second half, but Penn State instead brought some lightning of its own onto the field.

Penn State was able to score back-to-back goals to open the second half with a penalty kick from Pierre Reedy in the 48th minute. Then in the 49th minute Andrew Privett received a deflected shot that fell right to him at the right spot and was able to put it right over the Syracuse goalies head to make it 3-0 Penn State only four minutes into the second half.

After the two goals for Penn State, Jeffrey Field was rocking and the student section, which famously calls itself the Park Avenue Army, was ecstatic with the strong start. A packed student section was feeding off Syracuse who received ten fouls and two yellow cards, which kept the crowd electric to end the game.

The 3-0 win over Syracuse gave the No. 11 Nittany Lions their first win of the season and some momentum to have going forward against West Virginia. However, Reedy says the team is not worried about how its rivals like Indiana are doing. They instead will cross that bridge when they get there.

“We just are focused on ourselves, you know when that game comes about, we’ll focus on Indiana, for now we are just focused on Friday night at West Virginia,” Reedy said.

Penn State lost to Indiana last year in the Big Ten championship and is looking to take it one game at a time to take the fight back to Indiana. The Nittany Lions will have to take care of West Virginia next Friday Sept. 3 at West Virginia to claim the second win of the season.

 

Dale Ostrander is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email dko5097@psu.edu.