Rothenberg Leads Men's Soccer Past Columbia, 2-1

Saturday, October 20

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

Columbia

Rothenberg Leads Men's Soccer Past Columbia, 2-1

10/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Hanover, N.H.- Junior Dani Rothenberg (Atlanta, Ga.) scored twice to lead the Dartmouth men's soccer team past Columbia, 2-1, tonight. With the win, the Big Green improves to 8-2-2 and remains undefeated at 2-0-1 in Ivy play. Columbia drops to 2-8-1, 0-3 Ivy.

Though competitive, the contest was not as close as the score indicated, with Dartmouth holding a commanding 21-6 advantage in shots.

"I am delighted to get a win - Columbia came in here and gave us a really good game as we expected," said Head Coach Jeff Cook. "I thought we played well especially first half with chances to get in front by more than just one goal but Columbia equalized it and it became very competitive from there. I was pleased with the guys' response and we overcame the challenge to get an important win."

After six painfully close shots in the first 20 minutes for Dartmouth, Rothenberg came up big when he collected the rebound off a saved shot by senior Nick Christman (Falmouth, Mass.), nailing the upper right corner of the net in the 22nd minute.

The Big Green recorded four more shots in the first half including two beautiful long range attempts by Daniel Keat (Wellington, New Zealand), one sailing just high and the other hitting the right post.

On just their third shot of the game, the Lions struck gold when Tom Heinbockel scored a nice goal from the top of the box, beating a leaping Sean Milligan (Westport, Conn.) to the top right corner in the 44th minute to even it up.

The Green held a 10-3 shot advantage as the teams went into halftime knotted at 1-1.

Columbia took two of its three second-half shots in the first eight minutes, with Milligan stopping both while the Dartmouth offense continued to pepper Columbia's Michael Testa at the other end of the pitch.

Rothenberg came through again in similar fashion for his second goal in the 68th minute to put Dartmouth ahead for good. Classmate Craig Henderson (Wellington, New Zealand) got things started with a hard shot saved by Testa and Rothenberg found the loose ball, turned it and beat the goalie to the left side.

With a 2-1 lead intact, the Big Green commanded possession for the balance of the contest. Columbia had just one more chance to score in the 83rd minute but Milligan made a nice stop to preserve the victory.

Milligan finished with three saves in goal while Testa was impressive, making nine saves. Dartmouth out-shot Columbia 21-6 and had two corner kicks to the Lions' one.

The Big Green is back in action on Wednesday with a midweek trip to Boston College for a 3:00 p.m. start.