In keeping with the theme of the season, the Dartmouth men's soccer team (6-7-2, 1-4-1 Ivy) captured a victory in the form of a shutout. Of the Big Green's six wins, all have been via shutout, but this one had a different twist to it.
The biggest part of that difference was that freshman goalkeeper Wojtek Zarzycki posted his first career shutout in a 2-0 win over 24th-ranked Fairfield.
"I'm proud of the strength our team showed in competing for the full 90 minutes and coming out on top against a nationally ranked team," co-captain Matt Miller '03 said. "Dayo came up with two class goals and everyone hung together. We need to learn to bring this attitude to every game."
The "Dayo" Miller was talking about was central midfielder Damien Quinn '04, who banged home two tallies on the day to bring his total to three on the year.
"Not the prettiest of games, but it was a big win for us against a quality opponent," co-captain Danny Markman '02 said. "I thought Damien was absolute class on his two finishes."
Markman is right: It's difficult to distinguish the prettier of the two goals, but we'll give it a shot.
After an unbelievably rough first half, Quinn took it upon himself in the 68th minute with a direct free kick to the back of the Fairfield net. He touched it to Scott Lish '03, who touched it back to him, and then Quinn fired a shot that the Fairfield keeper couldn't handle.
"That was fun, and I even got credit for Danny's assist," Lish said. "Those refs let the game get a little out of hand, but it was exciting."
Quinn's next goal certainly was exciting, as in the 80th minute he corralled a bouncing ball twenty yards from the goal and fired a one-timed volley that found its way to the back of the net for a key insurance goal.
When the whistle blew signal the 90-minute mark, the Big Green knew it had played spoiler to now 11-4-4 Fairfield, which is hoping for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after losing its Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title game.
But after getting dominated by the Big Green, Fairfield has a good indicator that it may not be tournament-ready yet; the Stags also lost in their only game against a nationally-ranked opponent earlier this season.
Regardless, the four-save shutout by Zarzycki and the offensive performance by Quinn felt good to the Big Green men, who now should be confident to take down Penn in its final game of the regular season Saturday in Philadelphia.
Weekday Warriors: The Big Green has lost only once on a weekday this season, amassing a 4-1-1 record, with a 4-0 loss on a Friday to Stanford being the only blemish. Including last year in this statistic, Dartmouth has a 9-2-1 record in weekday situations, the only loss last year being a 3-1 decision at the hands of North Carolina on a Friday.
Sin-binned: Forward Matt LaBarre '04 received his fifth yellow card of the season and must sit out Saturday's game in Pennsylvania.
