Hoping to rebound from last week’s overtime heartbreaker, the men’s soccer team (3-3-1, 0-2 Ivy) dropped its second straight game Saturday, losing to No. 19 Yale, 2-0, at Berman Field.
Sophomore forward Lindsey Williams scored both of the goals for the Bulldogs (6-1-0, 1-0 Ivy), who extended their unbeaten streak against Cornell to seven games. Yale outplayed the Red in every aspect of the game, and afterwards head coach Bryan Scales made no excuses for the loss.
“They beat us. They were a good team and they proved it tonight,” he said. “We’re not blaming anybody but ourselves.”
Williams scored the first goal of the game in the 15th minute, capitalizing on the Red allowing the ball to bounce into its defensive zone. With all four backs drawn forward towards midfield, Williams went on a breakaway and easily beat senior goalkeeper Doug Allan for the tally.
“The bottom line is you don’t let balls bounce in your half of the field, and we did and we got punished for it,” said Scales.
Deflated, Cornell played like a team that was already beaten for the remainder of the first half. The Red was routinely late to plays and looked sluggish as it tried valiantly to tie the score against the quicker Bulldogs.
Despite finding itself on the short end of a track meet, Cornell made several stellar defensive plays late in the half to keep the score within one goal. Yale’s Ryan Raybould failed to convert on an indirect kick with about 12 minutes remaining in the first frame, kicking the ball directly into the knees of the Cornell wall.
Less than two minutes later, sophomore Peter Lynch played a loose ball behind a drawn away Allan perfectly as Allan scrambled back to the goal to gobble up the ball.
However, strong defensive effort aside, the Red was not able to muster enough to overcome Yale’s speed.
“They just beat us to a lot of loose balls,” said Scales. “When you do that, you’re able to put more plays together, and they were doing it.”
Just over two minutes into the second half, the Elis took a shot on goal which Allan came out of the box to bat away. However, Yale’s Andrew Dealy recovered the rebound and fed the ball to Williams, who shot over Allan to increase Yale’s lead to 2-0.
Cornell failed to convert on a couple of decent scoring opportunities in the second half, including an offsides and a strong shot on net by junior Ian Pilarski following a free kick. Pilarski was turned aside by a magnificent diving save by Yale goalkeeper Geoff Hollington.
In all, Hollington had five saves, while Allan recorded six. The Elis outshot the Red 14-11 and had the advantage in corner kicks, four to one.
Cornell will hope to rebound from this setback on Wednesday when it hosts Loyola on Berman Field.
Archived article by Owen Bochner