UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Anyone who has spent a fall Saturday in the Rutgers football game knows the chant. It is three words long, it is not fit for a family broadcast, and it gets aired out whenever Penn State comes up in conversation, which is to say every week.
On Tuesday night at Jeffrey Field, the men’s soccer team turned this phrase from a suggestion into an action.
Rutgers scored three goals in the first 20 minutes. At 31:51, Jim McElderry took four of the six players who had scored or assisted on them off the field.
Rutgers scored two more anyway.
The Scarlet Knights beat Penn State 5-0, with Dan Karsten scoring 58 seconds in, Francesco Di Ponzio at 6:42, William Pierce at 19:06, Thomas Angelone at 53:42 and Nick Collins from the penalty spot at 59:41. It was the most goals Rutgers has scored in a match this season, their fifth Big Ten win, their second straight win after Friday’s upset of No. 2 Indiana and the fifth clean sheet. It was also the 25th meeting between the programs, in a series Penn State still leads 14-10-1.
Rutgers came in at 6-6-1 and 4-3 in the Big Ten, fourth in the table, four days removed from the 1-0 win over Indiana that made it 4-4 against ranked opposition this season. The finishing problem had followed it all fall, with 151 shots for 19 goals and a conversion rate of 12.6 percent. Tuesday it took 19 shots, put 11 on target and scored on five of them, which is what it looks like when the finishing shows up and the opponent does not.
Penn State arrived 2-7-2 and 0-5-2 in the Big Ten, still looking for their first conference win in the first season under Rob Dow. Dow came from Vermont, where he won the 2024 national championship, and was hired in December to replace Jeff Cook, who resigned after eight seasons and a 1-6-3 Big Ten campaign that left the Nittany Lions last in the league. The only wins of the Dow era had come against Mercyhurst and Yale. Penn State lost 2-1 at home to Ohio State on Oct. 2, drew 0-0 at Michigan a week later and drew at Northwestern on Friday for their second Big Ten point. Goalkeeper Daniel Peluffo-Wiese, named one of the Big Ten’s Players to Watch alongside Noah Förster and Joe Buckley, came in with 31 saves through 11 matches. Rutgers won last season’s meeting 1-0.
Penn State put three shots on target all night.
Rafael Ponce de Leon saved all three.
Lineup
GK: Rafael Ponce de Leon
D: Simon Gorczowski, Devon Stopek, Nick Collins, Hector Criado
M: Pius Ssebulime, Zach Mastrodimos, William Pierce, Amer Lukovic, Francesco Di Ponzio
F: Dan Karsten
Subs: Logan Brown, Thomas Angelone, Erick Ruiz, Braxton Montgomery, Joshua Jerome, Abubakar Mayanja, Jeffrey Bryjak, Dylan Carlson, Jaeden Gordon, Matty Lynch, Noah Hannawald, Brian Nascimento, Cedric Lemaire, Jude Essuman
McElderry made one change to the eleven that beat Indiana, sending Karsten back up top in place of Angelone and reversing the swap he made before Friday. The box score listed Rutgers as four defenders, five midfielders and one forward for a fifth straight match.
The mass substitution came at 31:51 this time, and it was five, with Angelone on for Gorczowski, Erick Ruiz for Pierce, Braxton Montgomery for Karsten, Joshua Jerome for Lukovic and Abubakar Mayanja for Di Ponzio. Four of those five starters had already scored or assisted, and three of them, Karsten, Pierce and Amer Lukovic, never came back. Dow made four changes at the same stoppage, so nine players left the field at once with Rutgers up 3-0.
The recalls followed the usual pattern. Di Ponzio was back at 45:00 for Mayanja, Gorczowski returned at 69:27 and Mayanja came back on for Jerome at 79:56. In all, Rutgers made 17 substitutions and used 25 players, including backup goalkeeper Logan Brown, who replaced Ponce de Leon at 76:51 with the match long decided. Dow made 11 changes of his own, and Förster, Sheridan McNish, Toby Grant and Peluffo-Wiese were the only Nittany Lions to go the full 90.
Nobody in scarlet played all 90 minutes.
Three Goals in 20 Minutes
Rutgers did not need long.
Di Ponzio and Lukovic worked the ball to Karsten 58 seconds in, and Karsten put it into the top left corner off his right foot. Etienne Reck fouled Devon Stopek at 2:09, Rutgers was caught offside at 2:49 and Pierce gave away a foul at 3:14, and for a few minutes it looked like the match might settle in.
It did not.
Lukovic forced Peluffo-Wiese into a save at the top center of the goal at 6:20. Twenty-two seconds later Lukovic and Stopek set up Di Ponzio, who finished top right off his right foot. Lukovic had two assists before the seventh minute.
The third goal took longer to arrive and less time to finish. Rutgers won a corner at 11:48, and Pierce put the next attempt off target at 12:55. Penn State’s first shot came from Vladislav Cherny at 15:36 and went wide, Nehan Hasan had one blocked at 17:20, and the Nittany Lions won their only corner of the half eight seconds later. Then Rutgers came forward in a rush. Gorczowski had a shot blocked at 18:32, Rutgers won a corner at 18:39, Collins had a shot blocked at 19:03, and three seconds later Pierce finished top right off Collins’ assist.
Three shots in 34 seconds, and it was 3-0.
The next 12 minutes were quieter. Karsten, Collins and Cherny traded fouls, and Ponce de Leon made his first save at 29:54, low to his left on an Arian Recinos shot that was Penn State’s first attempt on target.
Then McElderry made his changes, and Dow made his.
The reshuffled Rutgers side kept shooting. Jerome missed the target at 37:10 and Angelone forced a save low and central at 38:10. Amadou Kone, on for Penn State at 31:51, was booked for unsporting behavior at 41:38 and fouled Jerome at 42:05. Collins put one off target at 44:28, the last shot of the half.
At the break Rutgers had 10 shots, five on target and three goals. Penn State had three shots and one on goal. Rutgers had committed five fouls to Penn State’s four and had been caught offside twice.
Ponce de Leon had made one save.
Four Saves in Three Minutes, Then Two More Goals
Di Ponzio came back on at the break for Mayanja, and Moritz Weber replaced Reck for Penn State. Rutgers opened the half like it had never stopped. Collins forced a save at the top center at 48:51, Di Ponzio one at the top left at 49:22 and Jerome one low and central at 49:34, three saves for Peluffo-Wiese in 43 seconds. Weber fouled Zach Mastrodimos at 50:19, Mastrodimos missed the target at 51:01, and at 51:35 Di Ponzio forced a fourth save, low to the right.
Peluffo-Wiese had made four saves in under three minutes, twice as many as he made in the entire first half.
He could not make the fifth.
Grant McIntosh fouled Di Ponzio at 53:16, and 26 seconds later Angelone, back on the bench to start after opening up top against Indiana, finished top right off his left foot, unassisted. It was 4-0.
Angelone had another attempt blocked at 55:30, Rutgers won their third corner at 55:51 and Mastrodimos had a shot blocked at 56:04. Dow sent Reck back on for Kone at 58:19.
Then Penn State gave away a penalty. Förster was whistled for a foul at 59:41, McNish was booked for dissent at the same stoppage, and Collins put the kick into the top right corner. Collins, filed as a defender, finished with a goal, an assist and four shots, more attempts than anyone on the field.
That was the last shot Rutgers took all night.
They did not need another.
McElderry started emptying the bench right away, with Jeffrey Bryjak on for Mastrodimos and Dylan Carlson on for Hector Criado at 59:41. Carlson fouled Reck at 63:03 and was booked for unsporting behavior at 64:26, five minutes after coming on. It was the only card Rutgers picked up.
Penn State’s best spell came around that booking. Beckham Brown, on since 31:51, forced two saves from Ponce de Leon, one low to the right and one high to the right, and each earned a corner. Rutgers sent on Jaeden Gordon for Collins and Matty Lynch for Di Ponzio, and Penn State brought Hasan and Recinos back on. Lynch’s night lasted five minutes, as Gorczowski replaced him at 69:27 and Noah Hannawald came on for Pius Ssebulime.
Penn State won their fourth corner at 70:42, and Sam Fielding put their sixth and final shot off target at 71:50. The Nittany Lions did not attempt another for the last 18 minutes.
Ponce de Leon came off at 76:51 with three saves, and Brian Nascimento came on for Angelone and Cedric Lemaire for Stopek at the same time. Brown played the final 13 minutes in goal and did not face a shot. Reck was booked for unsporting behavior at 79:56, Penn State’s third yellow, and the last Rutgers changes came at that stoppage, with Jude Essuman on for Ruiz and Mayanja back on for Jerome.
The last 10 minutes were fouls and throw-ins. Penn State was caught offside at 82:42, Cherny came back on at 83:09, and Nascimento and Grant traded fouls at 87:07 and 87:52. Rutgers committed nine fouls after halftime to Penn State’s eight, the whistle went at 90:00, and that was the match, creating some Havoc in Happy Valley.
Rutgers is 7-6-1 and 5-3 in the Big Ten with two regular-season matches left. Michigan comes to Yurcak Field on Friday, Oct. 23, and Rutgers closes the regular season at Michigan State on Oct. 30 before the Big Ten Tournament. A 1-0 win over the No. 2 team in the country and a five-goal win on the road, four days apart, is easily the best week any team at Rutgers has had all season.
The season numbers now read 7-6-1 overall and 5-3 in the Big Ten, with 170 shots and 24 goals for a conversion rate of 14.1 percent, 73 shots on goal, 78 corners, 182 fouls, 25 yellow cards and no red cards. Rutgers has kept five clean sheets. Ponce de Leon has made 43 saves and conceded 14 goals across 14 matches, three of those saves and none of those goals coming Tuesday.
The student section has been chanting it for years.
Tuesday, the men’s soccer team finally put it on the scoreboard.