Soccer shuts out Cornell to maintain second place in Ivies
AKIKAZU ONDA / The Dartmouth Staff 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.
