After a two week hiatus, the Derek Potteiger show is touring again and made a stop last night at Jeffrey Field in the No. 13 Penn State men's soccer team's (10-3, 3-1 Big Ten) 3-0 win against Cornell (5-5).
After putting up six goals in the first seven games of the season, Potteiger had been held without a goal and only one point in Penn State's three game losing streak of two weeks ago.
All that changed last night as the junior midfielder scored all three goals for the Lions and recorded the first hat trick of his Penn State career.
"He's playing at his best, he's all over the field, he's playing like an All-American," Penn State coach Barry Gorman said.
"The kind of performances he's putting in, you have to feel that he's going to garner the votes to get All-America."
The Lions began their scoring parade only six minutes into the game when, after working his way into the Cornell goalie box, Lions forward Brett Forbrich was taken down from behind by a Cornell defender, which warranted a penalty and resulted in a penalty kick.
Taking the penalty kick, which had been the job of injured midfielder Ricardo Villar before his injury, Potteiger blasted the ball past the diving Big Red goalkeeper Andrew Gordan.
"A team like that gets confidence by keeping the game close and keeping it tied," Potteiger said. "For us to get on top of them takes a lot of the wind out of their sails."
If that goal took some of the wind out of the sails, then the second goal must have stopped the wind completely.
On a feed from freshman Nic Shahay, Potteiger raced through the Big Red defense and took a shot from the top of the goalie box that sailed past Gordon.
Barring an offensive assault the size of World War II by Cornell, Potteiger put an end to any idea of a Big Red comeback. He capped his record night in the 47th minute when defender Ben Dawson served a ball in front of the net which Potteiger redirected for the goal.
Riding a two-game loosing streak at home, Potteiger saw the importance of the game in rebuilding the team's confidence that they had at the beginning of the season.
"For us to get a win here at home and get the confidence back it was important for us," Potteiger said. "It should be a good boost heading into the two Big Ten games (Ohio State and Michigan State)."
The first of the two Big Ten games will come this Sunday at 2 p.m. when Penn State hosts No. 19 Ohio State.
Though this will be the first time that both team's meet this season, they were both able to get a look at each other when Ohio State came to State College to compete in the Penn State Nike Classic.
Most people would see this as an advantage for their team but Ohio State coach John Bluem knows Gorman will bring something new to the table.
"We're aware that coach Gorman is a good coach and he knows that we've scouted him," Bluem said. "Chances are he'll have a different lineup and his players changed around."
Although both coaches may not know what to expect as far as strategies go, Gorman knows that Penn State is in for a fight.
"It's a Big Ten game and you can't legislate for those," Gorman said. "You can throw the record book out the window because it's going to be a battle."
No matter how well Bluem has the Lions scouted, if the Derek Potteiger show makes an encore appearance this weekend, the Buckeyes could be in for more than just a Big Ten battle.
