Men's Soccer Gets Critical Ivy Win over Cornell, 2-0

Saturday, November 7

HANOVER, N.H.

4:00 PM

Dartmouth College

CORNELL

Men's Soccer Gets Critical Ivy Win over Cornell, 2-0

11/7/2009 9:45:00 PM | Men's Soccer

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. - Dartmouth sophomore Lucky Mkosana tallied a goal and an assist to lead the men's soccer team to a big Ivy League win over Cornell, 2-0, on senior day.

Mkosana assisted on Andrew Olsen's (Norwell, Mass.) game-winner to open scoring in the 53rd minute and got one of his own in the 72nd off an amazing play by Daniel Keat (Wellington, New Zealand), who played the ball up to him while falling to the ground.

Dartmouth improved to 10-5-1 overall, 4-2 in Ivy play while Cornell dropped to 5-6-5, 0-3-3 Ivy. With the win, Dartmouth kept pace with Harvard and Brown, who both also won today. The Crimson stands first with 13 points while the Big Green and Bears, who meet next week, are tied for second with 12 points each.

Cornell keeper Rick Pflasterer played a solid game in goal, making seven saves to keep his team in the game despite being outshot, 16-6 by Dartmouth. The Big Green also earned seven corners to the Big Red's three. The game was full of great runs by the Dartmouth forwards and once it shook off an early Cornell surge, there was not much threat to the back line.

Dartmouth tested Pflasterer early with two shots on goal including one from Keat before Cornell countered with Matt Bouraee's shot that rookie goalkeeper Sean Donovan (Burr Ridge, Ill.) saved. Olsen made a great run in the 23rd minute, beating his defender down the right side before firing a rocket that Pflasterer made a diving save to stop. Just two minutes later Keat came into the box from the left side and made the unselfish play to pass to Keat in the middle who shot wide open but went just high.

The Big Green kept the pressure on to for the entire half, including an attempt by Maarten van Ess (Marlborough, Mass.) that Pflasterer made a fingertip save on in the 41st. On the ensuing corner kick, Mkosana hit the crossbar with a rebound shot. Cornell held off Dartmouth to get to halftime, 0-0.

It didn't take long in the second for the Big Green to take the lead. In the 53rd minute, Mkosana made another great run into the box and passed the ball off to Olsen on his left, who beat Pflasterer to the left side of the goal for a 1-0 advantage. Olsen had another great shot saved in the 68th and Austin Bowers (Old Greenwich, Conn.) was there for the rebound but had his shot blocked.

Dartmouth went up for good, 2-0, in the 72nd minute. This time Keat made the play, somehow getting the ball ahead to Mkosana despite falling backwards and on the ground. Mkosana picked it up and beat both his man and the defender. He fired and Pflasterer got a hand on it, but didn't have an angle and it found the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.

The Big Green kept the Big Red from getting too many more chances down the stretch and held on for the 2-0 lead.

Donovan finished with two saves in his second shutout of the week. The Big Green honored its five seniors: Craig Henderson, Pumi Maqubela, Ben Salmon, Derek Stenquist and Donnie Surdoval prior to the game.

Dartmouth has a critical Ivy road game next Sunday, Nov. 15 when it takes on Brown in Providence at 1 p.m.