The men's soccer team has been looking for something called consistency for quite some time now. Sure, it can win. And it can win big. But they can't seem to win on a regular basis.
Yesterday, this trend continued as the UVM Catamounts snapped the Big Green's one-game win "streak" with a 1-0 victory in Burlington.
In short, it was a game that Dartmouth should have won on the basis of odds alone. In soccer, there is the old adage that says one can't score unless one shoots. And therefore, the logic follows that the more shots taken, the more shots scored. Well, there was no logic in yesterday's game.
The Big Green outshot the Catamounts 21-7, and yet they still couldn't come out on top. The reason? Some would argue that UVM has a magic weapon in front of their net.
His name is Chris Rose. The Catamounts call him their goalie, but he's more like a brick wall. Between the posts, Rose was perfect -- stopping all 16 of the Big Green's would-be goals.
On the other end of the field, the Dartmouth defense came up big as well, locking the score at zero through the half.
Ten minutes into the second half, Gregg Olson weaved his way through the Dartmouth zone and brushed one past Big Green goalie, Matt Streng '98, for the Catamounts' only goal of the day.
Dartmouth reacted with a ruthless barrage of shots on goal as the Big Green swarmed the Catamount territory. But as fate would have it, the second half evolved into a "close-but-no-cigar-marathon" for the Big Green.
In the first attack, sophomore Chris Pedrick streaked down the field on a breakaway, but was foiled by a Catamount defender as he crossed the 18.
Ten minutes and eight shots later, co-Captain David Moran '96 launched two close-range rockets in a span of 20-seconds. But Rose was all over that.
In the end, the Big Green didn't lose to the Catamounts. They lost to Chris Rose. They lost to an incredible keeper who shrunk the size of the net on them.
Dartmouth is now 5-5-1 overall and remains the only undefeated team in the Ivy League, with a 2-0-1 record.
The Big Green return to Chase Field on Saturday for an afternoon match-up against Cornell.
