The Cornell men’s soccer team flew to Nashville, Tennessee with high hopes to capture a couple of wins in the Vanderbilt/Puma Classic. It left the tournament wondering what went wrong.
The booters lost to Vanderbilt on Friday, 2-0, and then to St. Louis, 3-1 on Sunday.
Its Friday match against Vanderbilt was part of the Vanderbilt/Puma Classic. The Commodores used home field to its advantage as the team dominated Cornell throughout the match. Vanderbilt scored goals at the 32nd and 55th minute. Both plays involved star freshman forward Jimmy Stone. The Red surged in the second half, however, its efforts were thwarted by the outstanding netminding of Vanderbilt goalie, Brad Winter. Vanderbilt outshot Cornell, 11-6.
A day’s rest couldn’t turn the team’s fortunes around, as the Red fell in its midday contest against St. Louis on Sunday. The Billikens scored three goals in the first half to gain control of the game.
St. Louis jumped on Cornell immediately and took a 1-0 lead one and half minutes into the contest. At the seven minute mark, the Billikens added a second tally. The Red struck back at the 24:16 mark. Senior Richard Stimpson scored on Cornell’s first penalty kick of the season.
It looked as if that would be the end of the scoring for the first half. Yet, with one minute left in the half, the Billikens got one past the outstretched arms of sophomore goaltender Doug Allan.
In the second half, the Red’s defense tightened and did not allow any more goals. It actually did not allow any shots nor corner kicks — a feat only accomplished rarely. However, the offense was not able to feed off of the remarkable defense and did not capitalize on any opportunities. The game eventually ended in a St. Louis 3-1 win.
With these two tough losses, Cornell drops to 2-2 overall. The Red will need to regroup before its highly anticipated matchup against Ivy rival Pennsylvania.
Archived article by Jason Skolnik