After a six-game unbeaten streak to open the season that earned Dartmouth a top-25 ranking, the Wildcats of the University of New Hampshire handed the Big Green its first defeat of the season on Wednesday night in Durham. Goals by UNH senior Josh Hareld and junior Tyler Jackson were enough to secure a 2-1 win for the Wildcats, even though Mark Limpert '07 had equalized for the Big Green.
Dartmouth, which went into the match with a 4-0-2 record (the team's best start since 1987), was caught by a surprise in the 22nd minute. The Wildcats' Chris Bennice played a ball in to Josh Hareld ,who was standing in the middle of the box. Hareld fired a shot into the lower right corner of the net for the 1-0 lead.
However, Dartmouth answered less than two minutes later, when Limpert headed in a throw-in from Patrick White '05 to equalize. Limpert now has five goals this season, two less than Big Green top goal-scorer Rob Daly '04, who tops the Dartmouth stat sheet with seven.
The Wildcats got the winner 10 minutes into the second half through Jackson. Bennice got the play started for the second time that night, when he tossed in a long throw from 15 yards out. UNH senior Brendan Hankard made a play on the ball, but it went off a Dartmouth defender and out to Jackson at the top left corner of the box.
He sent in a high-arcing shot that found the upper right corner of the goal and earned UNH's sixth win of the season.
Dartmouth had two extremely good chances to clinch a draw in the closing five minutes, but Amar Takhar '06 was unable to convert on either opportunity. Throughout the game, both teams created an equal amount of chances, each recording 11 shots, but UNH managed to finish off one more than did the Big Green.
"I don't think anything really went wrong with the team. I think we really played a good opponent in UNH. It was an away game, and a big rivalry game," said Big Green head coach Jeff Cook.
"To UNH's credit, they put a lot of emotion into the game, and I think they earned the win. I thought our players worked really hard and gave it their best effort, but sometimes in the game you come up on the wrong end of the scoreline, which happened to us Wednesday night.
"We have to learn a couple of lessons out of the UNH game. I think we were a little stretched out deffensively and maybe didn't defend enough as a group. The effort was there, but we needed a little more concentration."
Dartmouth will attempt to get back on track in its Ivy League season opener, as the Big Green hosts the Princeton Tigers (2-2-2) on Sunday at Chase Field in a men's and women's doubleheader. The women's teams will play at noon, followed by the men at 2:30.