Men's Soccer Tops St. Francis, 2-1, for Dartmouth Classic Title

Sunday, September 23

Hanover, N.H.

2:30 p.m.

Dartmouth College

ST. FRANCIS (Pa.)

Men's Soccer Tops St. Francis, 2-1, for Dartmouth Classic Title

9/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Hanover, N.H.- Dartmouth's dynamic duo of Craig Henderson (Wellington, New Zealand) and Andrew Olsen (Norwell, Mass.) got the job done again, scoring twice in 50 seconds to give the men's soccer team a 2-1 comeback win over Saint Francis.

Dartmouth won its fourth straight and remains unbeaten in its last six contests, improving to 5-1-1. St. Francis falls to 2-5.

"This was a great experience for our team to go out and play well but get behind at home against a well-organized defense [of St. Francis] and to stay with it and get the goal. Once we scored the first one, I felt confident that we would win," said Head Coach Jeff Cook. "I hope this gives us some confidence because we know at some point in the season we will be behind in a game and our response today was first class."

The first half went by quickly with few scoring opportunities for either team. The squads batted the ball about in midfield, but Dartmouth largely held an edge in possession. St. Francis caught a break with a corner kick in the 39th minute that allowed Andrew Stephens to catch the rebound after a goalmouth scramble, just sliding the ball past Dartmouth goalkeeper Sean Milligan (Westport, Conn.).

After holding a slim 4-3 shot advantage in the first, Dartmouth trailed St. Francis, 1-0 at halftime.

The Big Green came out focused and aggressively in the second half, but still struggled to find the back of the net. A team effort, starting from the back line, allowed Dartmouth to control the pace of the game and maintain possession.

In the 77th minute, junior Matt Carroll (North Andover, Mass.) was fouled on the right side just outside the St. Francis 18-yard box. Senior Mike Ordonez (Coral Gables, Fla.) stepped in for the free kick, sending a nice ball into the box. Carroll made a smart play to head the ball away from the goal and towards classmate Henderson, who hammered it home for the Big Green goal at 76:29

With the game tied at 1-1, Dartmouth wasted little time getting back on the horse after the restart. This time, Carroll sent the ball into the box from the right side for a perfectly timed header by Olsen to give the Green a 2-1 lead at 77:19.

With its spirits dashed, the Red Flash had just one more scoring chance late in the game when Jeremy Tice sent a rocket towards the goal but Milligan made a big save.

Dartmouth controlled the last 10 minutes to take home the 2-1 victory. The Big Green held a 9-2 lead in shots for the half and 13-5 for the game. Brad Williams had three saves in goal for the Red Flash while Milligan had two for the Big Green.

Henderson took home tournament Offensive MVP honors while Milligan was named the Goalkeeping MVP. St. Francis' Bryan Maguire was named Defensive MVP.

The Big Green is back in action on Saturday when it hosts Vermont at 4:30 p.m.