Ithaca wasn’t the only place in New York where the wintry mix blues descended last night, as the men’s soccer team dropped a 2-0 contest to in-state rival Colgate amid cold, rainy weather in Hamilton, N.Y.

As the Red (1-11, 0-3 Ivy) kicked off a three-game road trip, the Raiders (8-4-2, 3-1 Patriot League) continued their two-game winning streak at home against long-time rival Cornell. Thanks to the weather, the style of play in last night’s matchup corresponded to the rivalry.

The men’s soccer team will enter the third and final leg of a hectic segment of its schedule that had the Red (1-10, 0-3 Ivy) playing three games in six days. After losses to Penn State on Wednesday and Yale on Saturday, Cornell returns to action tonight as it travels to Hamilton, NY to square off against the host Colgate Raiders (7-4-2, 3-1 Patriot).

The Red is currently in the midst of a five game losing streak and it was exactly one month ago today that the Red last registered a win. Junior forward Matt Bouraee believes that the best way for his team to improve and break out of its rut is indeed by playing more games.

The frustration continued for the men’s soccer team as the Red suffered a 3-0 loss to Yale at Berman Field on Saturday. With the loss, Cornell remains winless in Ivy League play and the squad’s current losing skid has now reached five games.

While the Red was disappointed with the outcome, junior forward Matt Bouraee said that he believed the team actually competed much better and the game was more competitive than the lopsided score indicates.

With the men’s soccer team down 3-0 to visiting Penn St. in the final minutes of last night’s contest, someone in the bleachers yelled, “Make it happen!”

Sophomore midfielder Scott Caldwell followed instructions, booting a shot from the left side that made it past the Penn St. goalie just before the final buzzer. But it was too little, too late. The Red (1-9, 0-2 Ivy) had just given up two goals to the Nittany Lions (4-7-2, 1-2 Big Ten) in the last 10 minutes of the game, and a comeback was not in store for the home team.

The more things change, the more they stay the same for the men’s soccer team. The squad fell to Harvard on Saturday, 2-0, at Ohiri Field in Cambridge, Mass. A year ago, the Red gave up three goals within an eight-minute span to fall to the Crimson, 4-1, on Oct. 6, 2007.

This time around, despite the graduation of much of last year’s Cornell starting lineup, the matchup was more competitive.

“A loss is a loss, and you can only be so positive about it,” said senior defender Dan McKallagat. “But we were much more competitive [with Harvard] this year than last year. Unlike last year, where really we were on our heels for the whole 90 minutes, there were stretches [on Saturday] where we looked like the better team … where we were able to control the ball.”

After last week’s disappointing loss to Penn in which the Red’s 2-1 second half lead collapsed in heartbreaking fashion, the men’s soccer team (1-7, 0-1 Ivy) is eager to get back out on the field tomorrow afternoon game against Harvard (4-3, 1-0).

The Red will travel to Cambridge, Mass., to face off against a Crimson team that defeated the Red in Ithaca last year in a 4-1 blowout. However, head coach Bryan Scales does not believe that his team feels any added pressure to exact revenge for last year’s loss.

Ball control: Freshman defender Kyle Parsons (18) has adjusted to the east coast’s more physical style of soccer.

Both tall and lanky at around 6-0, their soccer backgrounds are based on technique more than physical play. Other than their jobs on the field — Pereira plays forward and Parsons is a defender — the roommates do almost everything together, with the routine of soccer and homework interrupted mainly with talk about… soccer.

The men’s soccer team squared off against Penn on Saturday with the hopes of starting off its Ivy League schedule with a victory. Ten minutes into the second half, it seemed like Cornell was on its way to a win, as freshman forward Pedro Pereira scored his first-ever collegiate goal to put the Red up, 2-1.

However, two goals by Penn senior Omid Shokoufandeh with less than 20 minutes remaining in the game uprooted a potential triumph for the host Red (1-7, 0-1 Ivy), as the Quakers (7-0-3, 1-0) rallied and held on to a 3-2 edge.

Golllllllllllllllllll!: Down one goal to Penn, sophomore midfielder Scott Caldwell (26) evens the score late in the first half after receiving a cross from senior Dan McKallagat.

Bryan Scales enters his 11th season as head coach of the men’s soccer team boasting a team with 11 seniors on the roster. Last year, his squad finished with a 7-9-1 overall record after some inconsistent play in the Ivy League led to a 1-5-1 in-conference mark and landed Cornell in second-to-last place in the league.

The coaching staff believes that, with the abundance of seniors on the roster, the 2008 squad will have the experience and composure necessary to compete for the Ivy League title.

“I think every year our goals are probably the same,” said assistant coach Joe Schneck. “At the end of the day, you want to make the National tournament.”

Senior co-captain Joe Yonga has perfected a certain style of leadership, an expansion on the idea of leading by example. Yonga does everything and goes everywhere, trying to show his teammates the way in all aspects of the game.

The self-described jack-of-all-trades came to Cornell as a center midfielder. After coming off the bench in the first two games his freshman year, he has started every game since.

And as the former Bio major has exchanged that field for Economics, circumstances have moved Yonga to the backfield — where he serves as the Red’s defensive anchor.