The crowd at Berman Field was lively, loud and loquacious Friday night as the Red defeated its Ivy league nemesis, Pennsylvania. However, the soccer team will not have the cheering prowess of Cornell fans when it travels an hour away to face inner-state rival, Colgate.
The game tonight pits two teams moving in opposite directions. The Red come off a convincing win, while Colgate has lost its last two. The Raiders lost to Bucknell, 3-0, and to St. Bonaventure, 4-3. The losses dropped them to 0-2 in the Patriot League and 3-5 overall.
Freshmen phenoms, Ian Pilarski and Colin Nevison, will start against Colgate. Both contributed significantly to the team’s victory with tremendous speed and ability to serve the ball into the box. The two have uncanny similarities both in their style play and physique.
“We have played together since we were ten or eleven,” Nevison said, “For the last two years, we have played on the Syracuse Blitz club team.”
This thunder and lightning combination look to provide offensive explosion and exploit a Colgate defense who has allowed seven goals in its last two games.
In similar fashion to the previous game, sophomore Scott Benowitz will start in replace of junior Ted Papadopolous, still nursing a back injury. Benowitz filled in admirably on Friday night as he broke down the defense and had numerous scoring chances. Yet, when Papadopolous played, he was dominant, accumulating a goal and an assist. Each will get playing time in the game.
If soccer games were decided purely on a team’s record and momentum, then the Red would should win convincingly. However, outcomes are not that simple. Once the opening whistle blows, both teams will forget the past and concentrate on its present task – to win the game. The Red look to concentrate more diligently and come back to Ithaca with another win under its belt.
Archived article by Jason Skolnik