The past few years have been difficult. Penn State Men's Soccer has been consistently overpowered and outclassed in the Big Ten. They have struggled to recruit and build a youth driven program. Enter Jeff Cook, who's in his second year under the helm of the program. In those two years he's already been able to cultivate a winning culture that is led by a mixture of youth and experience. This has resulted in the Nittany Lions finishing second in the Big Ten and earning a stellar record of 11-2-3 and 6-1-1 in conference play. Not to mention, Penn State is ranked for the first time since 2014 coming in at #13 in the country, and has their first winning season since that same year. This is a team that is firing on all cylinders at the right time as they prepare to host Wisconsin on Sunday in the Big Ten Tournament. So how did they get there?
Before the season started, Jeff Cook knew that recruiting was an important facet at building a program. Cook was able to get notable players like Liam Butts, Andrew Privett, Jalen Watson, and Kris Shakes to round out an impressive freshmen recruiting class. Pair that up with upperclassmen Aaron Molloy, Pierre Reedy, Christian Sload, and Brandon Hackenberg, and you have the combination of youth and experience that Jeff Cook was searching for.
The Nittany Lions opened the season with a tough opponent in Stanford coming to Jeffrey Field as the Cardinal soundly defeated PSU 5-0. If this were previous years, this team may have folded up and had another below sub par or mediocre season, but the Lions responded by ripping off a 5-0-2 stretch. After a tough 3-1 loss against Indiana, Penn State responded again by going 6-0-1 to finish the season. A huge win against Maryland in overtime on Senior Night showed that this team could play with most teams and that they were legit.
The Nittany Lions were led on the scoring sheet throughout the season by the combo of a freshman in Liam Butts and a senior in Aaron Molloy. Butts, was a scoring machine as his speed and size tallied him 8 goals and 16 points. Molloy, the senior captain from Dublin, Ireland, had a well rounded season racking up 8 goals, 5 assists, and led the team with 21 points. When the Nittany Lions needed a goal, they looked to Molloy, and like clockwork, he delivered. Senior Christian Sload also had two clutch goals at the end of the season scoring the game winners against Maryland and Rutgers respectively. Goalkeepers Kris Shakes and Josh Levine have split time through the 16 matches. Levine, the redshirt junior, has a 3-2-3 record with a .714 save percentage and has allowed 14 goals in the eight games he's started. Levine has been in net for the majority of the tough conference and non-conference matches as Jeff Cook went with experience over youth to start the season. That soon changed as Kris Shakes stepped into net and was 8-0-0 with a .850 save percentage and only allowed six goals in the eight games he's played. Shakes has started the last three matches against App State, Maryland, and Rutgers. It will be interesting to see who Jeff Cook goes to in the Big Ten Tournament as the seesaw keeper battle continues.
Ultimately this is a team that has built a chemistry with talent and experience. Staying healthy and maintaining depth is key to being successful in the Conference Tournament and the NCAA Tournament down the road. If Jeff Cook can continue recruiting and building the program, Penn State will be a dangerous team in the Big Ten for years to come.
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