Adelabu's Late Tally Advances Men's Soccer in NCAA Tournament Win

Thursday, November 20

Hanover, N.H.

5:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Fordham

Adelabu's Late Tally Advances Men's Soccer in NCAA Tournament Win

11/20/2014 8:04:00 PM | Men's Soccer

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – Senior Alex Adelabu broke a one-all tie with 4:18 remaining to propel the Dartmouth men's soccer team into the second round of the NCAA Tournament over Fordham, 2-1, on a chilly Thursday evening on Burnham Field.

The Big Green improves to 12-4-2, while the Rams ended their season with a mark of 8-9-4. Dartmouth second round opponent will be 11th-seeded Providence on Sunday at 7 p.m. The Friars won the Big East Tournament last Sunday, defeating Xavier, 2-1, at PPL Park.

"Obviously we are thrilled to be able to play together and compete together for another day," head coach Chad Riley said. "The NCAA Tournament is such a hard tournament to get a win in. We knew we were playing such a tough team. Fordham did an incredible job getting through the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament."

Adelabu's game-winner came after passes from freshman Matt Danilack and senior Colin Heffron that found the striker posting up for his team-leading 10th goal of the season.

"Matt passed me the ball and I just reacted to it really quickly and fired it in," Adelabu said in the postgame press conference following the win. "The biggest thing was that we didn't panic after they tied the game."

Midway through the second frame, holding a one-goal lead, Fordham forward Christopher Bazzini tied the score in the 76th minute with a header to the left post that was touched by Big Green junior keeper Stefan Cleveland.

Neither team scored in the opening 45 minutes of play, as the Big Green went into the break with a 4-1 edge in shots. However, that all changed in the 61st minute, when senior Robin Alnas scored the first goal of the game, netting his third goal of the year.

The goal sequence for the Big Green started inside the 18-yard box, as Adelabu chipped the ball to the head of Matt Danilack, who found Alnas from seven yards away.

Early in the first, Dartmouth took the first shot of the night, with Matt Danilack sending the ball over the crossbar at 8:54.

In the 12th minute, Dartmouth had its best opportunity senior Hugh Danilack broke up a Fordham cross and headed the ball to senior Gabe Hoffman-Johnson. A clean pass put the ball on the feet of Adelabu charging down the left side of the field, but his boot to the left corner bounced off the post.

Halfway through the opening frame, Cleveland made a diving save on an attempt by Aleksandar Mastilovic to keep the game scoreless.

Fordham had its next opportunity on a corner kick, as the ball bounced into a dangerous position in front of the Green and White net, but Cleveland cleared the ball.

Three minutes later, Heffron sent a shot from outside the box that sent Fordham keeper Sean Brailey diving, but the ball narrowly hit off the left post before rolling out of play. With just 15 seconds remaining in the frame, Heffron had a cross that was nearly knocked in by a sliding Ram, but Brailey was able to get control of the loose ball.

After kicking the ball off the post three times in the first, Dartmouth returned to the field for the second half more aggressively. Less than three minutes in, Adelabu fired the ball directly at Brailey, who pushed the ball away from the net.

Cleveland finished the contest with two saves, while Brailey made three. Dartmouth outshot Fordham, 11-5, in the contest and connected on seven in the final 45 minutes.

Sunday's contest can be seen live on Cox Sports on OSN and via CoxHub live.