Bucknell at Penn State (R)

The Penn State Nittany Lions defeated the Bucknell Bison 2-0 at Jeffrey Field Wednesday night. On another cold and rainy evening, the Nittany Lions carried the run of play but were unable to find the back of the net until Brian Devlin's fantastic strike from about 24 yards out with 20 minutes to go (Chad Severs assisted on the goal). Chad Severs gave Penn State an insurance goal a few minutes later when he slid to knock home Richard Costanzo's cross. The Nittany Lions outshot the Bison 7-4. Bucknell played an offsides-trap-bunker of sorts, and I was surprised that they tallied even four shots as their counter-attacks were not very threatening. Penn State had three shots cleared off the line in the first half and Simon Omekanda smacked a shot off the post in the second. But in the end, a 2-0 win is satisfying for a team that had been inconsistent of late.

Penn State improves to 7-3-5 and continues their homestand on Sunday, hosting Big Ten rival Michigan State at 2:00 pm. Penn State continues to play without injured starters Gabe Bernstein and Pasi Karppinen, seniors whose leadership and organization in the back have been missed. But in their absence Markku Viitanen has played great. David Walters and Brian Devlin continue to be excellent in a very strong Penn State midfield that also features Mike Lindemann and Richard Costanzo, although Costanzo drives me mad with his incessant attempts to beat everyone off the dribble. He finally realized in the second half that by using his speed and crossing ability out wide, he can be very dangerous. It should be interesting to see if Barry Gorman moves Costanzo to forward next year when Severs graduates, or instead leaves him out wide to keep his midfield intact. Freshman Conrad Taylor notches his 4th shutout this season, though as I said, he wasn't really tested much.

 

You know, that is a very good question. Let me first say that I am not the best gauge of talent. When Pat Noonan was a senior at Indiana, I though he was so overrated because he blew so many opportunities against Penn State. And we all know how well Noonan has done in MLS! But Severs is not all that different than Noonan in terms of not having the raw physical skills but an incredible knowledge of the game. Severs is not a true target man in terms of size (5'9" and 155) nor does he have the speed of some MLS forwards, but the guy can flat out finish. Severs scored 17 goals two years ago, 7 of which were game winners. He scored 7 goals last year and already has 9 this year. I've seen Severs score goals of all kinds in his four years here, with his head, long distance strikes, poaching, etc. He plays the ball very well to overlapping midfielders and, as I said, has a great understanding of the game. I think comparisons to Taylor Twellman and Pat Noonan aren't that far off in terms of style of play, Severs has that ability to be in the right place and then finish well. Goal scorers are always needed so it wouldn't surprise me to see him land in MLS, especially with reports of increasing roster sizes for reserve teams. I wish Severs the best in pursuing his MLS dream, it would be nice to see a former Nittany Lion stick in MLS (although Ricardo Villar is doing quite well in Austria).