Penn State men’s soccer won a gritty contest against Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon for the program’s Senior Day match.

Jose Palomeque, Dax Hoffman, and Nicholas Rieple all received a fitting send-off in their last regular match at Jeffrey Field. Despite no general admission tickets being sold, a large group gathered on the Park Avenue grass to cheer the team on.

The sky may have been gray, but it stayed in the 60s for most of the afternoon. It made for great picnic weather and offered some semblance of normalcy for the first time in a year.

“I want to thank everyone in our community for supporting us,” head coach Jeff Cook said after the game. “It does make a difference, it really does. It’s almost as if [the fans] sucked the ball into the net.”

Many fans may have been relegated to the side of the street to watch the game play out, but that couldn’t stop a few boisterous fans from showing their support for their friend.

I wonder who these fellas are rooting for?

“We came for his first game he was at with the ‘Go Dax sign,’ so we had to come to the last one,” Hoffman’s friend, Andrew Mardirossian, said.

Hoffman played on the club team for two years before finally making the team as a walk-on his junior year.

“There were weekends where this kid [Dax] was on the IM field doing cone drills while we were all just hanging out,” Scott McGee added. “He dedicated a lot of his time to be in this position, and that is why we are here. We are here to celebrate Dax for his hard work and dedication to this team.”

The Dax Hoffman supporting section made sure to heckle the Wisconsin backline. Defender Moritz Kappelsberger won’t forget that his shoe is untied!

“You should also bring up his fantastic jawline,” Blake Shinn added regarding Hoffman.

The game itself was a thriller despite being scoreless for 87 minutes. The excitement reached a climax on Park Avenue when Penn State was awarded a penalty kick with just three minutes to go.

Safe to say, the fans were ecstatic when Pierre Reedy converted the Nittany Lions game-winning goal.

Hoffman, Palomeque, and Rieple all got chances on the field and were met with considerable applause by their friends and family.

Following the match, the seniors were honored with a Senior Day ceremony.

The Beaver Stadium jumbotron got in on the celebration too!

Congratulations, seniors, and good luck in the postseason!