#25 Dartmouth Tops Fairleigh Dickinson, 3-1, in Home-Opener

Friday, September 12

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Fairleigh Dickinson

#25 Dartmouth Tops Fairleigh Dickinson, 3-1, in Home-Opener

9/12/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. ? A pair of set-piece headers from sophomore Bryan Giudicelli (Emerald Hills, Calif.) and a highlight reel breakaway by freshman Lucky Mkosana (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) propelled #25 Dartmouth (2-1) to a 3-1 win over Fairleigh Dickinson (2-2) tonight.

Despite a rainy evening, the 25th-ranked Dartmouth men's soccer team gave its fans plenty to cheer about in its home-opener as part of the Nike/Hypertherm Classic. Giudicelli, a sophomore back, was in the right at the right time all evening as he propelled his team to victory on both ends of the field.

The Big Green came out of the gates fast, earning three corner kicks and multiple scoring chances in the first five minutes. Craig Henderson (Wellington, New Zealand) had the crowd ready to erupt when he fired a rocket that hit the crossbar before freshman Michael Donelan (Andover, Mass.) had his header barely punched out by FDU keeper Juho Illi.

The early excitement continued when Dartmouth drew a free kick from 30 yards out in the seventh minute. Andrew Olsen (Norwell, Mass.) sent the ball in from the left side and Donelan connected with a shot to the far post. Giudicelli reacted as Donelan's shot would have been just wide and hammered it home with a perfectly-timed header to put Dartmout up 1-0.

The Knights gathered themselves and mounted a strong counter-attack, culminating in Samson Malijani drawing a penalty kick in the 24th minute. He stepped up himself and beat Dartmouth keeper Sean Milligan (Westport, Conn.) to the left side to tie it, 1-1.

The Big Green would certainly not be outdone and Mkosana gave the hometown fans a show. After picking up the ball at midfield, he dribbled around three FDU defenders before faking out Illi one-on-one to the right side. He then slid on the wet turf as he unleashed a rocket that somehow stayed on course, hitting the far corner from 18 yards out.

FDU nearly had the equalizer late in the half, when Malijani broke away on the right and passed off to Paul King, who fired point blank at an outstretch Milligan who made a beautiful one-handed save. With an even 4-4 shot total in the half, Dartmouth took a 2-1 lead at the break.

The Big Green opened the second half much like it did the first, including another crossbar shot by Henderson. Dartmouth controlled the entire 45 minutes, holding FDU without any real scoring opportunities and outshooting the Knights, 7-0.

Giudicelli added one more for good measure when he connected on another header on the right side off a beautiful corner kick cross from Olsen to make it 3-1 at 77:22.

Dartmouth finished with an 11-4 shot advantage and earned 12 corner kicks on the night. Milligan and Illi each had two saves.

The Big Green returns to action on Sunday when it hosts Colgate at 2:30 p.m.