Dartmouth Scores Trio of Goals in 2nd to Defeat No. 18 Hofstra

Saturday, September 26

Hanover, N.H.

5:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Hofstra

Dartmouth Scores Trio of Goals in 2nd to Defeat No. 18 Hofstra

9/26/2015 7:23:00 PM | Men's Soccer

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – After 83 scoreless minutes, the Dartmouth men's soccer team went on to net three goals within a four-minute period to shutout No. 18 Hofstra, 3-0, at Burnham Field on a chilly Saturday evening.

Sophomores Matt Danilack and Babacar Gadiaga scored their first goals of the season just a minute apart, with Danilack netting the game-winner at 84:02 and Gadiaga adding his tally to the board at 85:01. Freshman Eduvie Ikoba, who assisted on the previous goal, found the back of the net two minutes later.

The Big Green improved to 3-3-1, while the Pride suffered just their second loss of the season and dipped to 6-2-0.

“I am very proud of the team,” head coach Chad Riley said. “We always knew that this was going to be a very tough game, as Hofstra is a great team that came into this ranked and with a 6-1 record. I thought we handled them well. They got a couple of decent looks, which always happens, but we were very solid. Stefan had a great game in net and managed to stay on top of it when Hofstra had a few dangerous chances.”

In the first period, there were a combined 11 shots – four of which were on target – four saves, four fouls and one offside, but no goals. The ball spent the majority of the opening minutes of the first in Dartmouth territory, but the home team did a good job keeping the opponent away from senior Stefan Cleveland in net.

Five minutes into the second period, the Pride had their first real opportunity at a goal when Meshack Eshun Addy fired from the right and the ball skimmed the top of the net. In the 57th minute, Hofstra had another great chance when Harri Hawkins passed to Rory Murphy standing in the middle of the box, but the ball narrowly missed Murphy's foot and rolled to the left.

The Big Green had a chance of their own in the 73rd minute when Hofstra's goalkeeper Patric Pray saved a shot from sophomore Yima Asom, immediately dropping the ball in front of the cage and just inches in front of a charging Ikoba, but Pray was lucky enough to grab the ball before Ikoba could capitalize on the mistake.

With 5:58 remaining in regulation, sophomore Matt Greer sent the ball to the center of the box on a corner kick and Danilack was in the right place at the right time, jumping in the air and booting the ball into the right of the net and past a diving Pray. Less than a minute later, Ikoba fired directly at the net, but had his shot stopped by Pray, who could not hold on to the ball. Gadiaga took advantage of the keeper being on the ground and sent the ball into the left corner.

With two and a half minutes remaining on the clock, Ikoba made it past two defenders and rushed straight for Pray, who came way off his post to attempt to thwart the shot. Instead, the goalkeeper fell when he came face-to-face with the Big Green freshman, leaving a wide-open net for Ikoba to send the ball into.

Dartmouth outshot Hofstra, 19-11, and held a 5-1 advantage in corner kicks. In net, Cleveland had four saves to earn the shutout, while Pray stopped four shots in the loss.

When asked about the team preparing to defend its title and open Ivy League play next week, Riley said “we're very excited to get back into conference play. The Ivy League is a very challenging conference and Princeton is a good team. We are going to enjoy the next few hours of this win and then start to focus and prepare for that game one day at a time.”

The Big Green will open league play on Saturday, Oct. 3, facing the Tigers at 4 p.m. on Burnham Field.