On paper, this match is usually no walkover, but things might be different tonight. The Scarlet Knights will be missing three of their seniors, including starting keeper Matt VanOekel. And Rutgers head coach Bob Reasso can't turn to backup goalie Amir Haghshenas, either -- he'll also be out. The four players "were in violation of the team's code of conduct," Reasso said on Rutgers' athletics website, and they are suspended for the game.

See Thursday's DP for coverage of the game from New Brunswick.

Lucky for him and the rest of the Quakers, it seems to have paid off.

His latest display of quick-thinking came against Penn State last night. A counterattack led to a breakaway against the Quakers and Healy came out of the box to haul an attacker down, saving an almost sure goal (as a free kick given outside the box was blocked) but earning himself a red card and one-match ban in the process. It's something that almost any keeper would have done, and Healy showed that despite his relative inexperience in actual play, he still has the instincts of a seasoned veteran.

Against La Salle two weeks ago, he also almost saved (or lost) the game with some aggressive play. With Penn up 1-0 midway through the second half, La Salle earned themselves a one-on-one on the counterattack. An Explorers forward was rushing downfield with the ball, chased by the Quakers' defense. Healy ran out of his crease to meet the forward and cut off the angles, and dove on the ground toward the ball to stop the La Salle player from even getting a shot off. He got there cleanly, but the ball squirted over him and bounced slowly to the empty net -- slow enough that a Penn defender was able to get back and clear it off the line.

According to coach Rudy Fuller, in both cases "Healy did what he had to to save the team."

Coach Rudy Fuller changed the time from the usual 3:30 to 7:30 so that the team could practice under the lights at Rhodes Field.

"It's something we've tried to do this season when it works with players' schedules," the coach said.

Because their next match is at Rhodes at night, Fuller feels that practicing at night will better prepare the team for night games.

"Playing at night is a lot different than a day game," he said. "I'm just trying to give the players a feel for it."

Coach Darren Ambrose's problem is that he only has one experienced, healthy defender - Eileen Larkin - to call on. Because of this tough predicament, the back line relies in part on defensive-midfield types. Some - like sophomore Michelle Drugan - have experience playing at the back for Penn. But others who have been thrust into that role are untested freshmen - Marisa Schoen and Kaitlin Campbell, for example.

Ambrose's assessment that Michigan State's late winner was a lucky break and that his team didn't deserve to lose was fair. But Penn's record defending set pieces this year isn't exactly confidence-inspiring. It should be interesting to see whether it improves as the young players get more experience in the roles they're being asked to fill.

The men are difficult to pin down, especially since they've yet to play at home. The bad loss to Seton Hall was a surprise, but Fuller's teams have started slow before - last year's 2-0 defeat to Lehigh comes to mind. (In fairness, Lehigh went on to have a great year.)

I think even less can be pulled from this weekend's performance in California. The optimist might be tempted to read a lot of good things into a competitive 1-0 loss to No. 7 Cal; it's easy to say you were one goal away from a tie - of course, it's much harder to actually get it.

A good barometer will appear this weekend at the Penn Soccer Classic at Rhodes Field. Penn's two opponents, Hartwick and La Salle, gave the Quakers close games last year. A couple of wins - or even a win and a tie - would set them on the right track. The important thing will be to avoid getting swept, though. The chances for non-conference wins and momentum are running out.

However, I think it could be the little things in a foreign sport like soccer that make it different than traditional American sports. If your football team makes it into the red zone five times, while the opponent’s offense gets in there once, a win is almost always guaranteed. Your squad might turn it over once or twice, but you’ll still get three or four field goals because of your efforts that got you there, and nine points is better than the best the other team can muster – seven. When Steve Nash makes a great pass, Amare Stoudemire isn't going to miss the dunk.

But as the Penn women’s team saw on Friday, this is not the case in soccer. The better team often loses because it can’t finish.

The Penn women drew a whopping nine corners against Michigan State, and didn’t score on any of them. They also got 12 shots off, had five of them on goal, but none of them saw the back of the net, losing 1-0 to the Big Ten school.

Playing a quality opponent in the Spartans, the Quakers can be happy with their effort, but not satisfied.

For a team that was fifth in shots per game, fifth in shots on target per game and yet dead last out of the eight Ivy soccer teams in goals per game (four in seven), it’s not good enough for the Quakers just to get chances. They need to finish.

Following a corner kick, Jessica Fuccello staked Penn to a 1-0 lead with a first-half goal. The Quakers barely got close after that. But the Billikens did no better, saeeing a pair of rockets from close range turned away by the crossbar.

Bonus points to Cailly Carroll for getting a leaping hand on the second of those two shots. She played all 90 minutes and probably has a solid grip on the goalie position for now. End update

Natalie Capuano looked like her usual self in a 5-0 scrimmage win over George Mason earlier this week. Capuano has a good habit -- she does just the right amount of shoving in pursuit of a loose ball.

But when Saint Louis visits Rhodes field tonight at 7, finesse soccer might be the more attractive option. Anything that keeps the Quakers on their feet.

Like many women's teams, for the Quakers 'ACLs' is a four-letter word. Three regulars have already gone down, and more injuries in a nonconference game would be a killer.

Look for how the Penn defense responds to the absence of Nicki White and for how coach Darren Ambrose splits up time in goal. Last year it was two parts Cailly Carroll, one part Sara Rose. That recipe might be thrown a bit by the emergence of freshman Gina Winters.

Cepero, the Red Bulls’ third-string goalie on a development contract, has been leading the “Reserves” squad. Every MLS franchise has its backups in a separate league, in which Cepero’s Red Bulls are near the top of the tables - tied for second place out of the 13 teams at 3-1.

In his three starts, Cepero has allowed four goals and is 2-1, and came in for 15 minutes of relief in a 2-0 win in April.

That stat line maybe doesn’t sound great, but MLS is a fairly high-scoring league, and Cepero had to make the team first and then play in the games while he was finishing up at Penn.

Cepero was picked in the fourth round of the 2007 Supplemental Draft in January, and has been playing with the team ever since. Once starting goalie Ronald Waterreus got injured, Cepero was made readily available as a substitute (five designated players are allowed to be chosen during the game as one of the three substitutes) though he hasn’t yet made it onto the field.

Although if you listen to L.A. Galaxy President Alexi Lalas, who says that MLS is on par with England’s Premiership, (and even if you, like everyone in the world but him, don't) then Cepero is doing pretty well for himself.

Meanwhile, the athletic department is hosting blog-ish updates from Cepero at training camp. Here's the most recent.

In an unrelated matter, I've called out the Penn band in the past for stifling the crowd's cheers with its music (specifically, at the Temple game). Last weekend, my Penn Band Cheer Stifle Count remained at 0 for both games. Keep it up, guys!