Two Quakers named to Top Drawer Soccer’s Midseason Top 100 list

As the famous saying goes, offense wins games, but defense wins championships. Fortunately for No. 12 Penn men’s soccer, the team doesn’t seem to be lacking on either front.

With just four games left to play in the regular season, the Quakers have found plenty of success — with senior defender Leo Burney and senior forward Stas Korzeniowski having both played a huge role in the team’s success. As such, they have both found themselves a place on Top Drawer Soccer’s Midseason Top 100 players list. 

Burney’s inclusion on the list as the eighth best player in the nation comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed him through his career. As a freshman, Burney started every game and landed himself a first team All-Ivy spot — one of only two freshmen to do so. After an impressive rookie campaign, Burney upped the ante. 

As part of a squad that made a second round appearance in the NCAA Championship his sophomore year, Burney once again started every game, contributing to a defense that held opponents to just 0.78 goals per match. Most impressive, Burney ranked fourth on the team with five goals, including game winners, against Ancient Eight opponents Yale and Cornell despite playing from the role of a defender. In addition to First Team All-Ivy and Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year honors, Burney also earned himself a spot on the second team All-American.

In his junior year, Burney returned to the first team All-Ivy after playing a team high 1,440 minutes, and holding opponents to a less than 35 percent shots on goal percentage. The team repeated as Ivy League regular season champions. This year, Burney has played every minute thus far on a team that is undefeated in Ivy League play and poised to make another run to an NCAA tournament appearance. 

Joining Burney in the top 100 is teammate Korzeniowski, who has also seen his fair share of recognition throughout his time with the Red and Blue. Korzeniowski finds himself in 36th on the list.

The forward had a relatively quiet rookie season, by his standards, that ended with him claiming Honorable Mention All-Ivy honors. His second year, now playing as the starting forward, Korzeniowski had his breakout season. Leading the team with 11 goals and seven assists, Korzeniowski cruised his way to an Ivy League Offensive Player of the Season award alongside his first nomination to the First Team All-Ivy. 

After an impressive junior year campaign that saw him start all 16 matches and finish the season with six goals and eight assists despite a wrist injury, Korzeniowski saw himself drafted to represent the hometown Major League Soccer team, the Philadelphia Union, as the 53rd selection in the MLS SuperDraft. 

Returning for his senior year with the Quakers, Korzeniowski picked up where he left off and currently paces the team with nine goals and two assists. Most recently, Korzeniowski earned his fourth nod as the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week following an assist and a goal over ranked opponent Hofstra and a brace in the team’s win over Brown. 

Together, the two have led the team to an outstanding showing, including an unbeaten run when playing at the newly renovated Rhodes Fields. The two credit the culture that the team has created for the success.

“It's a really special group of guys,” Korzeniowski said. “It’s really my family. I really love them. I know a lot of teams will claim they have good culture and will claim their brotherhood is unique. And that might be so, but the guys that sit in our locker room are a really, really good group of, just, humans.”

Both Burney and Korzeniowski return to action as Penn men’s soccer is set to take on Cornell on Oct. 20 at 12:00 p.m. in Ithaca, New York.