Dartmouth and Vermont Play to NCAA Tie, Catamounts Advance on Penalties

Hanover, N.H. - Seventeen years since their last NCAA Tournament meeting, the Dartmouth and Vermont men's soccer teams played to another 1-1 double overtime tie, but this time the Catamounts took home the shootout in the first round of NCAA play.

In 1990, Dartmouth advanced 4-1 on penalty kicks and eventually made it to the Elite Eight. Tonight, in 2007, Vermont took the edge, 4-3 and advances to play #3 seed Connecticut in the second round.

Today's contest was far from average, with each team scoring a goal on a penalty kick - 88:50 apart - to force the 1-1 tie. Dartmouth ends the season at 11-4-3 while Vermont is now 9-9-3.

"Obviously it goes without saying we are incredibly disappointed to be out of the tournament," said Dartmouth head coach Jeff Cook. "We have to take responsibility for the chances we had to win the game but we couldn't generate what we needed. We want to give credit to Vermont's coaches and players and wish them luck in the second round."

In the first minute of the game, Dartmouth junior Matt Carroll (Andover, Mass.) was fouled hard, drawing the free kick just inside Vermont's defensive half. Sophomore Daniel Keat (Wellington, New Zealand) sent a great ball into the box and a hand ball was called on a Vermont player, awarding Dartmouth a penalty kick. Keat stepped up and nailed the shot to give the Big Green a 1-0 lead just 54 seconds into the game.

The teams continued to battle and Dartmouth gained another advantage when Vermont's Lee Stephan Kouadio was sent off with a red card in the 23rd minute, forcing his team to play a man down. The Big Green took advantage of that and finished the first half with a 7-2 shot advantage but just the 1-0 lead.

Vermont came out on fire in the second half, mounting a ferocious attack early but Dartmouth's back line made some great stops, blocking several shots before they even got to the goalkeeper. The Big Green rallied to take charge late in the game but saw Vermont's Roger Scully do an amazing job in goal, making five of his 11 saves in the second half alone. Scully came out of the goal late and Dartmouth junior Craig Henderson (Wellington, New Zealand) missed a heartbreaker, just inches wide of the open goal from 25 yards out.

The Catamounts made a late attacking play and Dartmouth goalkeeper Sean Milligan (Westport, Conn.) made a diving stop on the ball. He was slow to get up, but got to his feet for the final two minutes of regulation. Amazingly, in the final minute of play, Vermont was awarded a penalty kick after a Dartmouth hand ball in the box. Connor Tobin stepped in and Milligan was unable to make the save, tying the game at 1-1 with just seconds left.

Milligan had to leave the game with an injury and senior Justin Schwarz (Newburgh, N.Y.) came in for just the second appearance of his career. Schwarz led the Big Green through the two overtime periods with one save, while Scully made two saves to ward off Dartmouth's frenzied attack.

Two teams played to the 1-1 stalemate after 110 minutes, with Dartmouth holding a 20-10 shot advantage and Scully making 11 saves to Milligan and Schwarz's four. Dartmouth also took 13 corner kicks while Vermont had 10.

The game moved on to penalty kicks to determine who would advance to the NCAA's second round.

Dartmouth's Craig Henderson (Wellington, New Zealand) led off but Scully made a great save. Jordan Crasilneck stepped in and scored for Vermont to put his team up 1-0. Mike Ordonez (Coral Gables, Fla.) evened things up with a Dartmouth goal before Tyler Hasman put Vermont up 2-1. In the third stanza, Keat scored for Dartmouth to knot it at 2-2 before Vermont's Loren Hill regained the 3-2 lead for his team. Dartmouth senior Nick Christman (Falmouth, Mass.) scored in the fourth round to tie it at 3-3 and Vermont's Panos Georgiadis hit the crossbar to truly even things up. In the fifth and final round, Scully came up big with a save against Dartmouth's Dani Rothenberg (Atlanta, Ga.) before Tobin nailed the final kick to send Vermont to the next round, 4-3.

"Obviously this is disappointing especially with six seniors," said Keat. "We deserved to help them have a longer season and it's tough to take."

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