The Big Green men's soccer team suffered yet another heartbreaking defeat in a 1-0 overtime drama against Northeastern at Chase Field on Tuesday.
Dartmouth was once again shaken by an injury, as leading striker Rob Daly '04 was ruled out of the game by head injury. After the recent events, the injury-count on the team is at seven, as defender Jacob Aguiar '07, midfielders Peter Scheufele '06, Peter Savidis '06 and Tom Billings '03, as well as forwards Scott Darci '05 and Sam Porter '05 are all out . The injury crisis forced head coach Jeff Cook to play captain midfielder Matt LaBarre '04 up front, alongside Mark Limpert '07, the only varsity forward available for the game.
The first half was a close competition, with both sides having a couple of chances in front of goal. However, Big Green keeper Rowan Anders '07 did very well to deny Huskies' junior forward Michael Cipriano on two occasions. Dartmouth also had its chances, wasted by defender Oliver Harker-Smith '05, Limpert and LaBarre. Just before half-time, Jeff Cook introduced junior varsity forward Frederick Ochieng '05, who enlivened Dartmouth's attack.
Even though LaBarre was substituted at half-time due to a neck-injury, Dartmouth was in total control of the game in the second period. Ochieng, Darnell Nance '06 and Harker-Smith all had chances to open the score, but their shots were either wide of the goal, or saved by Northeastern sophomore keeper Sergio Saccoccio.
With ten minutes left on the clock, Nance shot at Huskies' goal and it seemed like Saccoccio had dropped the ball behind the goal line, but not according to the referee.
The Huskies were frustrated by Dartmoth's dominance and this resulted in a series of fouls, leading to bookings for Saccoccio and senior Oumar Thiam. Northeastern had posed no danger for Dartmouth during the second half, and as both teams entered the first overtime, it looked as though Big Green would finally be able to seal a much-needed win to boost their confidence and end their six-game losing streak.
However, a mistake by the Big Green defense in the fourth minute of the first overtime allowed sophomore midfielder Jeff Gannon to steal the ball and pass through to Cipriano, who was left in acres of space. After rounding Anders, Cipriano shot into the empty net, thus prolonging Dartmouth's agony.
"I have absolutely no idea how we always come short out of a game that we totally controlled," Cook said. "For me, there was only one team playing soccer this afternoon. They hardly crossed the halfway-line in the second half. There's no blame, but when we create that many chances, at one point we have to score," he commented on the stats, which show that Dartmouth outshot their opponents 18-10. Asked to elaborate on Rob Daly's condition, Cook said that "he is possible for [the] Harvard [game]."
After the win, the Huskies improved to 8-6-3, while Dartmouth dropped to 4-7-2. Big Green (0-4 Ivy) will be traveling to Cambridge, Mass. on Nov. 1 to play Harvard (6-4-3, 1-2-1 Ivy) in an 11:00 a.m. showdown on Ohiri Field. The Crimson won its first Ivy League win on Saturday when they overcame Princeton 2-0 behind goals by senior Kevin Ara and freshman Matt Hoff.
