Dartmouth Falls 2-0 On The Road to New Hampshire

Tuesday, October 27

Durham, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

New Hampshire

Dartmouth Falls 2-0 On The Road to New Hampshire

10/27/2015 9:02:00 PM | Men's Soccer

By: Dartmouth

DURHAM, N.H. – The Dartmouth men's soccer team fell to Granite State rival New Hampshire 2-0 on Tuesday night at Bremner Field.

The Big Green drop to 8-4-1 overall, while the Wildcats improve to 9-3-3.

Neither team could get anything going offensively in the game's opening minutes. At the 20-minute mark, UNH crashed the net around Dartmouth goalie James Hickok, but the Big Green defense thwarted the Wildcats' scoring opportunity. Hickok finished the night with two saves.

With 13:55 left in the first half, Dartmouth had a quality scoring chance when freshman forward Eduvie Ikoba fired off a hard shot to the left of the UNH netminder Andrew Pesci, but he could not find the back of the net.

“It certainly wasn't a terrible performance by any stretch,” Dartmouth head coach Chad Riley said. “UNH is a good team and we knew that going into the game, but I think at the end of the day they had more momentum with their two goals. We had good chances, but we didn't quite convert. I think there will be some things to look at and improve, but it wasn't all bad. I'm pleased with the effort, it just wasn't our night tonight.”

After a scoreless first half, both teams were looking to break the tie, but it was the Wildcats who found success. With 30 minutes left to play, UNH's leading scorer Chris Wingate hit Frazal Nabi near the top of the box who fired a shot past Hickok for the first goal of the game.

Just two minutes later Nabi buried his second goal of the game unassisted to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead. The Green kept the ball in the offensive zone the remainder of the night, but could not get on the scoreboard.

Despite the loss, Dartmouth's hopes for an Ivy League title are still alive. The Big Green will travel to Harvard this Saturday at 4:30 p.m. for a pivotal conference showdown at Jordan Field. Riley said his team will have no problem getting refocused for the Crimson.

“I think it won't be very difficult when you get kicked in the backside,” Riley said. “I think this time of year, maybe you need that. It's nice when you win, but it's a nice kick to say hey let's refocus. We have a great stretch of games left in the season and we're going to take it one game at time.”