Brown men's soccer wins again
Ivy League men's soccer teams were 2-0 in non-conference play this weekend. Brown, with its win over Columbia, now appears to represent the biggest obstacle in Dartmouth's quest to capture the Ivy League crown.
Penn 4, LaSalle 2
Penn captured its fourth straight victory on Rhodes Field by defeating LaSalle on Sunday. The Quakers' win came in spite of the team's unimpressive performance in the first half, as Penn missed all 10 of its shots and allowed LaSalle to score on its only shot of the half.
Penn bounced back to score two goals in the first seven minutes of the second half.
Senior midfielder Austin Deng took advantage of a Billy Libby feed to score Penn's first goal six minutes into the second half. Penn marched right back to score within another minute, as Alex Maasry knocked in his own rebound off of Lasalle keeper Josh Schoppe, also giving Libby his second assist of the game.
Penn's Nathan Kennedy scored 15 minutes later off of a Henry Chen free kick to make the score 3-1. Penn scored its last goal on a two-on-one break, as Maasry found Libby for the goal.
Penn keeper Jeff Groeber denied any chance for a LaSalle comeback. LaSalle's only other goal of the game came on penalty kick at the 80:52 mark.
Penn improves to 5-4 with the win, but still remains at the bottom of the Ivy League with an 0-2 conference record. Penn next travels to Philadelphia University tomorrow.
Princeton 1, Hartwick 0
Princeton appeared to have rebounded from its painful three-game losing streak on Saturday as it won its second game in a row against Hartwick. Mike Nugent scored the only goal of the match at the 15:33, giving him his seventh goal of the season. Gianfranco Tripicchio and Matt Striebel assisted on Nugent's goal.
The Tigers played a crisp game in the field, and keeper Jason White had an impressive game with 10 saves.
Princeton's last two games follow a disappointing string of losses to Dartmouth, Rutgers and Columbia. Princeton had even held a top-25 ranking prior to the losing streak.
A recent team meeting seems to have righted the Tigers' ship.
Princeton (6-3-0, 0-2-0 Ivy) hosts Seton Hall tomorrow.
Brown 2, Columbia 1
Brown bounced back from a disappointing weekend at the Clemson Invitational to defeat Columbia on Saturday.
Brown got on the board first, as co-captain Scott Powers slid inside the six-yard area to finish a pass from midfielder Christian Martinez with under four minutes to go in the first half. Brown extended its lead to 2-0 when senior Hermann Trophy finalist Cory Gibbs blasted a shot from the 30-yard line past Columbia keeper Matt Hill at 50:46. Anders Kelto provided the assist.
Columbia narrowed Brown's lead to 2-1 in the 73rd minute with a David Duffy header off of a Craig Smart corner kick, but the Brown defense shut Columbia down for the rest of the game.
The win improves Brown to 5-3-1 (2-0-0 Ivy), while Columbia falls to 4-4-1 (1-1-0). Brown hosts Providence College today, while Columbia travels to face Army Tuesday.
Cornell 2, Harvard 1
The Ivy League leader in points showed off his talents yet again on Saturday. Cornell senior Adam Skumawitz scored an overtime goal past Harvard keeper Dan Mejias at the 114:20 mark off a feed from freshman Colin Nevison to give Cornell the crucial win over Harvard.
Cornell, coming into the game with a two-game losing streak, improves to 5-4-0 (2-1-0 Ivy), while Harvard drops to 4-3-1 (0-2-0 Ivy).
Cornell took an early lead when senior Rick Stimpson took a lead pass from freshman Ian Pilarski, and beat Mejias in a one-on-one situation.
Harvard tied the game at 1-1 at the 59:42 mark, when Harvard's Grayson Sugarman found teammate Ladd Fritz, who the put the ball past Cornell keeper Andrew Gordon. Both keepers stopped everything that came at them for the rest of the second half and the first 15-minute overtime period.
Cornell travels next to No. 17 Penn State on Thursday. Harvard hosts the Harvard Invitational this weekend.
