#16 Dartmouth Men Alone in First After 3-1 Win at Penn

Sunday, October 18

Philadelphia, Pa.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Penn

Men?s Soccer Earns Team and Individual Academic Awards

#16 Dartmouth Men Alone in First After 3-1 Win at Penn

10/18/2009 9:45:00 PM | Men's Soccer

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Philadelphia - The #16 Dartmouth men's soccer team seized sole possession of first place in the Ivy standings with a 3-1 victory at fellow 2008 Ivy Co-Champion, Penn tonight.

Three different player scored to deliver the win for the Big Green, which improved to 8-2-1 and 3-0 in Ivy play while Penn dropped to 4-6-3, 0-2-1 Ivy. With three wins, Dartmouth sits atop the Ivy standings with nine points and Harvard is second at 2-0-1 good for seven points.

The stage was set for an exciting early-season showdown for the defending co-champs, as Penn was the only Ivy team to defeat Dartmouth last season. As if that wasn't enough, the weather forced the game to be postponed from its schedule Saturday evening start due to excessive rain and snow in the Philadelphia area. The site of the game, Penn's grass Rhodes Field was not even determined until after noon today.

After all the buildup, the game would prove more of a midfield struggle with the teams combining for only 11 shots on the night. Dartmouth held the 8-3 advantage, putting five on goal and scoring on three.

Junior Austin Bowers (Old Greenwich, Conn.) opened the scoring in the 13^th minute when he found himself in the right place to receive a cross from senior Ben Salmon (Auburn, Wash.). Bowers scored from five yards out to put the Big Green ahead 1-0.

Penn responded less than 10 minutes later, getting the equalizer in the 22^nd minute, scoring on its second attempt of the game. After a throw in by Zach Barnett, Alex Takakuwa headed the ball past rookie keeper Sean Donovan (Burr Ridge, Ill.) to tie the game at 1-1. The contest remained tied heading to halftime, with Dartmouth getting only two more looks at goal including an Andrew Olsen (Norwell, Mass.) shot that was blocked.

It didn't take long in the second for Dartmouth to get the go-ahead goal. Olsen sent a cross into the box from the left side and fellow junior Bryan Giudicelli (Emerald Hills, Calif.) emerged in traffic to score the winner in the 49^th minute.

As the half wound on, the Big Green kept the pressure on the Quakers, but most importantly kept Penn out of striking distance offensively.

Lucky Mkosana (Bulwayo, Zimbabwe) provided the last-minute insurance and icing on the cake with his sixth goal of the season in the 88^th minute. In trademark fashion, Mkosana brokeaway through the middle, beat his defender and Penn keeper Garon Smith for the goal.

Mkosana's tally nearly proved pivotal in the final minute as Penn's Loukas Tasigianis provided his team's only shot of the half, forcing Donovan to make his lone save of the game as the seconds ticked down.

Dartmouth has a tight turnaround before flying down to Florida to face top-10 foe South Florida this Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m.