Rookies Propel Dartmouth Men's Soccer Past Cornell, 5-2

Boxscore

Ithaca, N.Y. - The Dartmouth men's soccer team stayed alive in the Ivy race with a 5-2 win over Cornell on the strength of a Lucky Mkosana (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) hat trick.

Mkosana scored three goals to lead the Big Green (10-5-1, 4-1-1) to a critical victory tonight. The Big Green is currently tied for second in the Ivy League and could take home at least a share of the Ivy title next weekend. With Harvard at 5-1-0 and Penn at 4-1-1 and the two squaring off next week, it will all come down to the wire. In addition, the win tonight helped boost the Green's NCAA Tournament hopes.

The rookie Mkosana got to work right away, scoring two unassisted goals in the first nine minutes to move his season goal tally to 10, with 22 points overall. Bothe tallies were one-on-one goals thanks to his trademark fast-moving footwork.

Cornell (1-14-0, 0-6-0) counterattacked and got on the score board just eight minutes later when Kevin Viera sent a through ball up to Matt Bouraee, who beat Dartmouth goalkeeper Sean Milligan (Westport, Conn.) one-on-one to make it 2-1.

The Big Green padded its lead, however, in the closing minutes of the half when freshman Adam Rice (Manalapan, N.J.) scored the eventual game-winner off a feed from sophomore Austin Bowers (Old Greenwich, Conn.). Bowers, who is in his first season and tallied his first collegiate point with the assist, sent the ball into the box for Rice, who headed it past Luca Cerretani to the right at 42:17.

Dartmouth took its 3-1 lead into halftime after outshooting Cornell, 16-3, in the half.

Cornell came out in good form to start the second half and it was Bouraee from Viera again in the 53rd minute to put the game in reach, down 3-2. David Browning sent a quick pass to Viera, who collected it and found Bouaree for the score.

The Big Green got back in control but could not find the back of the net for 25 uneasy minutes following the Big Red's tally. Finally it was Mkosana completing his hat trick in the 78th minute that put the game out of reach for Cornell. Senior Craig Henderson (Wellington, New Zealand) sent a long ball up to Mkosana, who dodged around Cerretani and scored with an open goal to make it 4-2.

Henderson put an exclamation point on the win in the 81st minute when he hammered home his sixth goal of the season with a blast from 15 yards out for the final 5-2 score.

After holding a 12-4 advantage in the second, Dartmouth finished the game out-shooting Cornell, 28-7. Cerrentani made six saves for the Big Red while Milligan, who faced only six shots and two on goal, did not have any stops. Sophomore Lyman Missimer (The Woodlands, Texas) made his collegiate debut for Dartmouth, playing the final five minutes and making one save.

Dartmouth closes out the regular season with yet another big Ivy contest when it hosts rival Brown on Friday, Nov 14. The game, which will be broadcast live nationally on the Fox Soccer Channel, kicks off at 8:00 p.m. The Bears (9-6-1, 3-3-0 Ivy) put themselves out of Ivy contention with a 2-0 loss to Yale tonight.

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