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The Dartmouth
July 25, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Men's soccer struggles in tourney

The Dartmouth men's soccer team came into this weekend's Umbro/Lipton classic riding a three game unbeaten streak, not expecting to get shut out of the win column. Unfortunately, for the Big Green expectations are not always realities.

The Big Green went 0-2 this weekend losing a heartbreaker to the University of Richmond, 2-1 in overtime on Saturday, and falling behind early to an opportunistic Hartwick squad and losing 3-2, on Sunday.

On Saturday, Richmond struck first as they netted a goal at the 24:21 mark of the first half.

But Dartmouth quickly retaliated, just 40 seconds later, as Tui'onne Faleafa '99 sent a corner kick across the keeper's box where it was knocked home by Methembe Odlovu '97.

The remainder of the game became a story of missed opportunities for Dartmouth. The Big Green outshot the Spiders 15-4 after halftime and 25-13 overall, but could not manage to put Richmond away.

"We started off slow, but we picked it up and played well," goalie Matt Streng '98 said. "We just couldn't finish any of our chances."

Ultimately this inability to close out their opponents will cost the Big Green. With just 2:03 remaining in overtime, Richmond's Adrian Cox headed in a rebound to give the Spiders the victory.

"That goal was just a mental lapse by our defense," Streng said. "It was just one of those games where one team was going to sneak in there and finish it off."

Even though Dartmouth came up on the short end of the stick, Saturday's game was far from a complete failure.

"The outcome is misleading, because we played really well," Streng said.

Unfortunately, it is hard to say the same thing about Sunday's game.

Hartwick was "en fuego" during the first half of the game, taking advantage of several let downs in the Dartmouth defense and scoring three times within a 20 minute span.

This forced the Big Green to play catch up for the remainder of the contest, and while they were definitely in the game, netting two late game goals by Andy Warner '99 and Methembe Odlovu '97, the Big Green just couldn't put the pieces together.

"We were just trying to fight our way back into the game," Streng said. "It looked like we were going to be able to come back for a while, but we just didn't have it."

The Big Green will try to get back on track this week, as they take on the University of New Hampshire on Wednesday and St. Francis on Saturday. Both games are at home.