PHILADELPHIA  - With less than ideal conditions at Rhodes Field, it was pretty apparent that whoever scored first would have a big advantage in Saturday's Yale-Penn men's soccer game. It took awhile, but it was the Quakers who got on the board first, and Travis Cantrell's goal at 67:46 was the only goal of the game as Penn edged the Bulldogs on a rainy afternoon.

"It was a scrappy game played in difficult conditions," said Yale head coach Brian Tompkins. "It really always looked like it would be decided by one goal."

Yale (4-7-3, 1-3 Ivy) had a couple of opportunities to tie after Cantrell's goal but couldn't capitalize.

"We fought hard to try and find an equalizer but we were unable to get that killer touch," Tompkins said.

The winning goal came off a corner kick. The ball skipped across the box where Kevin Unger had a volley at it. His shot was blocked by a pair of Yale defenders, but trickled through them to Cantrell, who turned and shoveled a ball that barely got between another pair of Bulldog defenders and across the line.

Penn (5-6-3, 1-2-1 Ivy) outshot the Bulldogs 12-7 and had a 7-1 edge in corner kicks.

Travis Chulick finished with three saves for Yale. He made a pair of nice saves on Michael Kozak shots in the first half to keep the game scoreless.

Garon Smith stopped four shots to post the shutout for the Quakers.

The Bulldogs are back in action next Saturday when they play at Columbia. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.

Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity