The men's soccer team won its home and Ivy League opener yesterday in convincing fashion, romping the University of Pennsylvania 5-1 in front of a lively crowd at Chase Field.
Four second-half goals propelled the Big Green, who are now 2-0 overall in Coach Fran O'Leary's inaugural season.
An evenly played first-half took a turn in Dartmouth's favor in the 37th minute when a cross by Blaine LeGere '95 was inadvertently knocked in the goal by Penn defender Alan Waxman. Waxman slid to attempt to break up LeGere's curling, left-footed pass but instead directed the ball into the net.
The game saw no more scoring until twelve minutes into the second-half when Hunter Paschall '96 put the Big Green up 2-0 as he headed home a cross from Zach Samol '98.
"When you're that close to the goal, the goalkeeper doesn't have much of a chance," Paschall said. "All I had to do was change the direction of the ball."
Another cross from Samol, who was impressive in his collegiate debut, initiated the third Dartmouth goal, which was scored in the 72nd minute. Auggie Lopez '97 headed the Samol chip across the Penn goal box to the foot of Chris Mitchell '95, who then dribbled around Penn goalie Andrew Kralik and tucked the ball into the net.
"The ball was headed down nicely and I beat the goalie to it," Mitchell said. "(Lopez) really made the goal."
Lopez then got into the scoring fest, finding himself at the top of the Penn goal box after a Dartmouth counterattack. A diving Kralik could not get a hand on a low shot from Lopez that found the left corner of the goal.
The Big Green went up 5-0 in the 76th minute as Samol notched his first goal for the Big Green on an assist from Methembe Ndlovu '97.
A meaningless Penn goal from Max Englehardt with two minutes left ruined the shutout bid of Dartmouth goalie Brian Wiese '95, who made a huge save in the 26th minute of the first half to keep the game scoreless.
The Big Green now concentrate their efforts on the University of Connecticut Huskies, who were recently ranked second in New England.
"(UConn) has one of their strongest teams in recent years," O'Leary said. "They are fast, fit, competitive and dangerous on the break. The game will be our hardest to date."
Kickoff is 4:00 p.m. Wednesday at Chase Field.
