Following Wednesday’s rainout, the men’s soccer team will return to action tomorrow as it hosts Dartmouth in its home finale.
The Green (7-7-1, 3-1-1 Ivy) started the season slowly, but has been on a tear of late, winning five of its last six. With Dartmouth still remaining in contention for the Ivy title, the Red (4-6-3, 1-3-1) will attempt to play spoiler as well as build on its first conference win of the season last week against Princeton.
“Dartmouth mirrors the way we’ve been going,” said head coach Bryan Scales. “Early on, they weren’t scoring goals. Eventually they started getting goals, and they’ve had a couple of shutouts too.”
During the Green’s recent five-game winning streak, senior goalkeeper Doug Carr recorded four shutouts. Carr, also a lacrosse player for Dartmouth, joined the soccer team at midseason after the Green’s goalkeeping corps was decimated by injury. Carr, a defenseman in lacrosse, had not played soccer since high school, when he was twice an All-League selection in goal. He was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the week of Nov. 4.
The Green’s top offensive threat is sophomore Scott Darci, who leads the team with five goals and 11 points on the season. Dartmouth also features a strong, experienced backfield.
“They have a lot of dangerous guys,” said Scales. “We’ll have our hands full.”
Scales intends to give the team’s four seniors plenty of playing time tomorrow, their last game on Berman Field. Scott Benowicz, Liam Hoban, and Kevin London should see significant playing time throughout the game tomorrow. Classmate Doug Allan, who has recently lost some time in goal to junior Nate Dunlap should also see significant time, but that depends on the condition of his hand, after he sustained a broken finger earlier this week.
“It’s an occasion that they’ll want to remember, and we’ll try to send them off with a good result,” said Scales.
Allan recorded 11 saves in a 2-2 tie against Dartmouth last year in Hanover. In that game, Hoban scored on a penalty kick. The Green has historically played Cornell extremely tough and Scales expects no less tomorrow.
“They’ll make it very difficult,” said Scales, “they’ll press us all over the field. We always have great games with Dartmouth.”
After Wednesday’s cancellation in Oneonta, the Red seemed anxious to get back to action. It will hope to carry over that energy into tomorrow’s game. Cornell will hope to follow up on last week’s victory over Princeton in order to string together some wins and finish the season on a positive note.
Archived article by Owen Bochner