Big Green Travel to Harvard for Pivotal Ivy Showdown

GAME 14
Dartmouth Big Green (8-4-1, 4-0-0 Ivy) vs.
Harvard Crimson (7-5-2, 4-2-1 Ivy)
Date: Saturday, Oct. 31, 2015 – 4:30 p.m.
Location: Jordan Field, Cambridge, Mass.

SATURDAY'S GAME
The Dartmouth men's soccer team travels to Cambridge for a pivotal Ivy League showdown with Harvard at Jordan Field.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green are coming off a 2-0 road loss to intrastate rival New Hampshire on Tuesday night. While Dartmouth outshot the Wildcats ,14-12, the Green could not stop Frazal Nabi, who scored both of UNH's goals in the second half. Dartmouth had plenty of scoring opportunities throughout the game, including one in the first half when leading scorer Eduvie Ikoba fired a hard shot to the left of the UNH netminder, but the Big Green could not get on the scoreboard in Durham.

SCOUTING THE CRIMSON
Most recently, Harvard had a 2-1 victory at home to Bay State rival Boston College. The Crimson where handed their first Ivy League loss of the season when they fell 3-2 to Princeton. Previously, the Big Green and Harvard were tied for first place in the conference, but the loss gave Dartmouth sole possession. The Crimson have won five of their last six games thanks in part to their senior goalie Evan Mendez, who leads the Ivies in saves with 52. On offense, Harvard's leading goal scorer Jake Freeman has found the back of the net five times this year and also leads the team in points with 13.

LAST TIME AGAINST HARVARD
On Nov. 1, 2014 the Crimson and the Big Green played to a 1-1 draw in double overtime. In a complete performance where Dartmouth out shot Harvard 12-1 and held a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks, Stefan Defregger scored his first collegiate goal just six minutes into the game. The Crimson tied the game just before halftime and neither team could find the back of the net in the second half or overtime periods.

RISING IN THE RANKINGS
For the first time this season, Dartmouth was ranked in the Top 25 by TopDrawerSoccer.com. The Big Green came in at No. 20 and were the only Ivy League representative in the ranking.

SPREADING THE WEALTH
Ikoba and Matt Danilack lead Dartmouth in goals with three apiece, while 11 Big Green players have scored at least once this year as the team has combined for 17 goals total. One key player to Dartmouth's success on offense has been Matt Greer. He leads the Ancient Eight in assists (5) and has bulged the onion bag once this season for the Green and White.

FOLLOW ALONG
Can't make it to the game? The game this weekend will be carried live in HD on the Ivy League Digital Network for subscribers. DartmouthSports.com will also provide live stats for those looking to follow along during the contest.

LOOKING AHEAD
The Big Green return home on Tuesday, Nov. 3, for their final nonconference game of the season against Northeastern at 7 p.m. Following that contest, Dartmouth hosts Ivy League foe Cornell on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 4 p.m. on Senior Day.

Schedules