Penn State Falls to No. 1 Clemson in Season Opener – Penn State

CLEMSON, S.C. – Penn State men’s soccer opened their 2024 campaign losing to reigning National Champions Clemson, 3-0, Thursday evening at Historic Riggs Field.

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Half

The first 20 minutes of the match started as a back-and-forth battle between the Nittany Lions and Tigers. Freshman midfielder Caden Grabfelder had the first scoring opportunity of the match, but the Tigers keeper was able to scoop up the ball.

At the 20-minute mark, Clemson struck first after a yellow card on sophomore defender Morgan Marshall. The Tigers extended their lead by two nearly 16 minutes later after another yellow card on midfielder Ben Liscum.

Second Half

Clemson held possession most of the second half, producing six shots to the Nittany Lions’ three. The Tigers capitalized once again at the 53^rd minute.

Penn State had a solid opportunity to get on the board at the 74^th minute from Christian Dionne however after further review the goal was called offsides. Dionne then missed the goal just wide three minutes later.

COACH COOK ON THE MATCH

“We are never satisfied in defeat, but I am very proud of the effort that our players put forth tonight in one of the most challenging environments in college soccer,” said head coach Jeff Cook.” “I thought we had large spells of positive play in the first half and created good scoring chances. We will learn from this, take responsibility for the mistakes we made and be much better from this experience tonight. We look forward to a great season this year.”

MATCH NOTES

• Freshman Malick Daouda made his collegiate debut, while Andrew Cooke, Chase Oliver, Christian Dionne, Michael Hewes, Jack Bonas and Kojo Dadzie made their Penn State debuts Thursday evening.
• Penn State and Clemson now split the all-time series 1-1-0 with their first meeting dating back to 1999.
• The Tigers outshot the Nittany Lions 12-6 overall and 5-3 shots on goal.
• Clemson held the advantage on corner kicks, 7-2.
• Cooke registered 3 saves in the 90 minutes.
• Penn State falls to 0-1-0 on the season, while Clemson improves to 1-0-0 overall.

UP NEXT

The Nittany Lions will return to Happy Valley for their home opener against nonconference Army on Sunday, August 25 at 5 p.m. (ET). The match will kick off a four match homestand for Penn State. The match will be streamed live on B1G+.