Penn State men’s soccer has had a remarkable season thus far. Under Jeff Cook, the Nittany Lions are 8-2-2 and have eclipsed their win total from 2018 with four matches remaining. The team is in uncharted territory for everyone involved, but Cook doesn’t want anyone to get ahead of himself.

“We haven’t done anything,” said the second year head coach. “I haven’t done anything at Penn State. I walk out of my office in Rec Hall and see a lot of national championships.”

Penn State’s 4-1-1 mark in the Big Ten is good for first place in the table. Cook’s team was projected to finish sixth in the conference in the preseason poll. Unless they fail to pick up any more points against lower ranking opponents, the Nittany Lions will place well above that.

“We have gotten results on the back of hard work, being humble, and being a team,” Cook said.

The Nittany Lions faced Wisconsin on the road on Saturday. While many would write off the last placed Badgers, Cook wasn’t ready to look ahead, even though Tuesday will provide a stern test when No. 18 James Madison comes to State College.

“We put it out of our mind,” Cook said of the non-conference clash after a 2-1 win over Wisconsin. “You see Coach Franklin’s tweets about one game at a time. It’s a bit different in our sport, but the biggest mistake we need to avoid is thinking about anything else than what is in front of us.”

The season has provided Penn State an opportunity to achieve postseason success. The relatively inexperienced team is navigating fixture congestion and high pressure situations as they near the home stretch, but they have an identity for how to cope with the inevitable highs and lows of the campaign.

“We want to take it game by game. A win’s a win but we don’t want to dwell on our losses too,” captain Aaron Molloy said. “We want a next game mentality. As soon as a game has finished, win or lose, we look back on it then move on to the next game.”

The players haven’t let the losses affect them yet this year. The two defeats in 2019, at the hands of Stanford and Indiana, have seen the team rebound with wins in both occasions.

“The biggest thing is improving every game,” defender Brandon Hackenberg said. “Fixing the mistakes through film, looking at what we did well but we are harder on ourselves with what we need to work on.”

The James Franklin-esque 1-0 mentality has rubbed off on the men’s soccer team, and Cook is determined for the message to transcend the confines of Jeffrey Field.

“Something that I have learned as a coach, is that you can really destabilize your team if you go too high or too low,” Cook said. “You have to make sure you keep it in perspective. [Losing a game] can be really emotionally draining, but we also have to keep ourselves in check because we are lucky to be what we are doing. I think that is a good life lesson as well.”

In the midst of chasing a home Big Ten playoff match, an NCAA Tournament appearance, and a top-25 ranking, Cook and his players will now have their sole focus on James Madison for the Tuesday fixture. The match will begin at 7 p.m. at Jeffrey Field.