Two second-half goals pushed the Dartmouth men's soccer team past Cornell (5-6-5, 0-3-3 Ivy) on Saturday to secure a vital 2-0 win, keeping the team in contention for an Ivy League championship.
The win keeps the Big Green (10-5-1, 4-2-0 Ivy) tied with Brown for second place in the Ancient Eight, while an overtime victory by Harvard over Columbia kept the Crimson on top of the league.
Andrew Olsen '11 put the Big Green ahead in the 53rd minute, when Lucky Mkosana '12 sped up to collect a loose ball, carried it to the box and set up Olsen to net his third goal of the season.
Mkosana doubled the lead in the 72nd minute, when he sprinted to a long ball from co-captain Dan Keat '10 and carried it up to fire a powerful shot past Big Red goalie Rick Pflasterer.
"I think the most important thing was after the first half, we went out really hard and we all worked together," Mkosana said.
Mkosana now leads Dartmouth with eight goals, while Keat still leads the team overall with 20 points.
Although the Big Green forced Pflasterer to make four saves in the first half against multiple long balls and free kicks, the period remained scoreless.
Keat nearly scored the Big Green's first goal in the 23rd minute, when he sent a ball down the left wing for Mkosana, who collected it and crossed back to Keat at the top of the box, but his shot missed high.
Mkosana also came close to scoring in the dying minutes of the first half when he claimed a ball from a corner, but his shot hit the top of the post.
Cornell took only three shots in the first half and created few chances, but an early attempt did force rookie goalkeeper Sean Donovan '13 to make his first save.
Led by Olsen and Mkosana, the team took a little over eight minutes of play after halftime to score the game-winning goal.
The Big Red's closest chance to counter came in the 63rd minute, when a breakaway left Dartmouth at a three-on-two disadvantage, but strong defense by Pumi Maqubela '10 and Teo Larsson-Sax '13 forced a high shot.
The Big Green closed out the second half with nine shots, for a total of 16 on the game. Cornell came up with six shots, while Pflasterer made a total of seven saves.
The Senior Day win also honored the team's five seniors Maqubela, Salmon, midfielder Derek Stenquist '10, defender and midfielder Donnie Surdoval '10 and midfielder and co-captain Craig Henderson '09.
"The win was extra special, especially since it was the last home game with the seniors," Mkosana said. "I'm really happy for them, because this will be something they remember for a long time."
This team's seniors helped lead the Big Green to 39 wins over their career, including an appearance in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament last season.
Henderson is tied for fifth all-time in Dartmouth career points with 53, while his 20 career goals puts him in eighth for all-time scoring. His 13 assists also place him eighth all-time.
Although hopeful to return against Cornell after weeks on the sidelines with a heel injury, Henderson was left out of Saturday's match.
Dartmouth will now end its season with a crucial matchup at Brown, where a loss would end the Big Green's hopes of an Ivy League title this year.
The match will take place a day after Harvard's game against the Penn (6-7-3, 2-3-1 Ivy). A tie or loss for the Crimson, coupled with a tie or a win for the Big Green, would place Dartmouth as at least one of the league leaders.
The last league game will also be pivotal for Dartmouth's postseason, as a win would help its chances of entering the NCAA tournament and would also affect the team's entering rank and location of play, Mkosana said.
"Whatever the result is for Harvard, we're going to go out hard," he said.
The game is set to kick off at 1 p.m. on Sunday in Providence, R.I.
