Behind the offense of Alex Adelabu '15, the Dartmouth men's soccer team earned a split in its two games over the weekend. The Big Green (2-2, 0-0 Ivy League) lost, 2-1, to Southern Methodist University on a late penalty kick on Friday before beating Colgate University, 1-0, on Sunday, giving head coach Jeff Cook his 99th career win.
Against Colgate, Adelabu scored the eventual game-winning goal in the 60th minute off a pass from co-captain Kevin Dzierzawski '13. Adelabu settled the pass on his foot, turned upfield toward the Colgate goal and gently deposited the ball into the net.
"Alex got a good ball and made the most of it," Dzierzawski said.
After a first half in which Dartmouth had multiple scoring opportunities, the Big Green defense remained strong and physical throughout the shutout effort.
"The game [against Colgate] wasn't a soccer game," co-captain Teo Larsson-Sax '13 said. "It wasn't pretty at all there was a lot of fighting over the balls and we showed we could handle that and defend against an opponent that attacks with more force and muscle."
The Big Green also received contributions from newcomers Sten Stray-Gundersen '16 and Alberto Gorini '16, who have emerged as starters for the squad.
"They deserve to be there and have done really well adjusting and are both really good soccer players," Dzierawski said. "I think the freshman group as a whole is pretty strong, and they'll gradually just continue to get better and better."
The Dartmouth offense presented a balanced attack as seven different players combined for nine total shots, two of which were on target. Colgate ended up with five shots on goal, all of which were stopped by Big Green goalkeeper Noah Cohen '14.
"Offensively, you have to scrap and make the most of it," Dzierzawski said.
After a scoreless first half against SMU in which the Big Green offense dominated play, Adelabu finally opened up the scoring in the 53rd minute. The sophomore forward received a long pass from Colin Heffron '15 and proceeded to cut back along the goal line before sliding the ball under Mustang goalkeeper Jaime Ibarra's outstretched right hand.
"After creating many opportunities in the first half and not getting the results out of it, it was nice to see we came out hot in the second half and came out firing," Dzierzawski said.
The Big Green's lead did not last long, though, as SMU midfielder Andrew Morales knotted the score at 1-1 in the 63rd minute. After a string of four passes, Morales received the ball inside the penalty box and placed the ball high into the net past Cohen.
"I think it definitely took the wind out of our sails a little bit when they equalized," Dzierzawski said.
With the score tied at one, SMU's offense penetrated the Dartmouth defense, and Heffron took down SMU's attacker inside the box, giving SMU a penalty kick and earning a red card in the process.
"You can't blame any one individual," Dzierzawski said. "It's tough, and Colin did what he thought was the right thing to do. We learn and move on and try not to make mistakes as a team again."
In the ensuing penalty kick, Mustang Tyler Engel buried the kick in the upper-left corner. Besides the two goals, the Big Green defense played well, as goalkeeper Cohen did not need to make any other saves in the game.
"Our backline had a great game," Dzierzawski said. "It was just one or two mistakes, but unfortunately that's the life of being a defender."
Playing down a man, the Big Green offense could not muster a goal in the final minutes. SMU, a strong technical team, worked the ball from side to side, maintaining possession as the game winded down.
"It's never easy, especially against a team that's good on the ball," Dzierzawski said.
Andoni Georgiou '14 helped lead the Big Green offense throughout the game, providing four of the offense's 12 total shots. Dartmouth outshot SMU, 12-10, in the game while also winning the corner kick battle, 5-2.
"As a unit, we had a good game we should have won," Dzierzawaski said.
So far this season, the Dartmouth forward duo of Adelabu and Georgiou have combined for four goals, one assist and 12 shots. After his two goals over the weekend, Adelabu now leads the team with five points.
"[Adelabu's] been absolutely great for us," Larsson-Sax said. "He had a great preseason and has gotten a lot of good goals for us. The goal [against Colgate] was a scrappy one, but those count as well as the beautiful ones. [As shown by] his goal against SMU, he's very good at using his speed and pace to get back past defenders."
In preparation for the matchup against SMU, Big Green assistant coach Chase Wileman, who played for the Mustangs from 2003 to 2006, was able to provide helpful coaching advice in advance of Friday's game, according to Dzierzawski.
"He was able to shed some light on their style of play and how we were going to defend it," Dzierzawski said. "We executed our plan for the game to a T. It was just a couple of mental lapses that inevitably ended up costing us the game."
The Big Green will have a week of practice before heading out to New Mexico to play to University of New Mexico and Missouri State University in a tournament this upcoming weekend.
"It's good to have a bit of variety this early in the season, so when we get to Ivy League play, we've seen different styles," Dzierzawski said.
The Big Green opens Ivy League play on Sept. 29 at Princeton University.
