By ryan September 29, 2000
To taste the sweet fruits of victory again, Cornell (1-1, 1-0 Ivy) will have to do more than be good this weekend against Lehigh (3-0, 0-0 Patriot). It will have to be excellent. Lehigh enters the contest tied for 17th in the NCAA I-AA rankings and have won an impressive nine-straight victories over Ivy League opponents and 13 consecutive victories at home. On top of that, the Red will have to compete with a considerably bigger and faster team, a concern for head coach Pete Mangurian. “They’ve got great speed on the ends and they’re a very physical team,” Mangurian said. Senior co-captain Joe Splendorio voiced his concerns as well. “They are athletically, top to bottom a better team than us,” he commented. “They are a strong team.” Speed will be a big factor in Lehigh’s offensive and defensive game plans. “They’ve got the kind of speed that you’d better be efficient in all your movements because they can make a mistake and still recover,” Mangurian said. “They don’t say out of position long, if they ever get out of position,” he added. The coach also stressed mistake-free play from his own squad. “We can’t miss opportunities. We can’t drop balls in the flat when we’re open for five-yard gains,” the coach said. “We have to take what they give us.” The Mountain Hawks have already faced two Ivy opponents in this young season, Penn and Princeton. Two weeks ago Lehigh got by Penn 17-10, and last week it escaped with a two-point victory over Princeton, 20-18. Neither of those victories were quite as convincing as the Hawks would have liked them to have been. Princeton nearly upset the undefeated Mountain Hawks’ team last week by scoring a touchdown with 1:18 remaining, only to have their two-point conversion broken up. Lehigh was not particularly sharp either, though it was opportunistic. Lehigh used two Princeton turnovers and turned them into a pair of passing touchdowns for Brant Hall, a new quarterback for Lehigh who likes to run. The junior took off ten times for 31-yards last week against the Tigers. “The quarterback has a great scrambling ability,” Mangurian said of Hall. Hall’s running ability and the newfound ground game will likely give a Cornell defense that has already given up 613 ground-yards fits. Cornell also had trouble stopping Yale in third-down situations last week, a trend that does not bode well against a team that is completing third-downs at a 45% clip thus far. “Defensively, they stretch you a lot of different ways,” Mangurian commented. “They can run the football, they can obviously throw it, and if things close down [Hall] can take off and run with [the football], so it’s going to be challenging defensively [for us].” If Cornell hopes to run the ball again as it did last weekend against Yale, it will certainly find the going tougher against a speedy Lehigh defense that is ranked 15th in the nation in run defense (I-AA). Last week junior Evan Simmons ran 25 times for 117 yards. The junior has yet to score his first collegiate touchdown, and will be looking to improve that statistic this weekend. Mangurian is looking for the speedy junior to get plenty of hand-offs again this weekend. “We have to continue to try to run the football. We have to have some success running the football in order to make the rest of our offense go,” Mangurian noted. “We cannot be one dimensional.” Cornell may find seems in the passing lanes this weekend, however, as Lehigh has allowed 188.3 yards-per-game in the air thus far this year. Those numbers should be favorable for a Cornell team that has averaged over 250 yards passing in its first two games. Rahne will once again be searching out Splendorio, who caught five balls for 101 yards last week. Mangurian refuses to look at the passing game only, insisting that balance is in the cards for this week’s Red attack. “It’s our plan to continue running the football and trying to have some balance offensively,” he commented. When the Hawks have the ball, the 6-0, 215-pound Phil Pleasant will line up at tailback for Lehigh. Pleasant ran for 80-yards last week against Princeton on 17 carries. The big junior will be the main running force for a Mountain Hawks that is normally known as ‘Air Lehigh’. Offensively, this change has been key for a Lehigh that has had trouble holding onto leads this year. The Red, however, is looking past the numbers and is simply looking forward to a game against a ranked opponent this weekend. “It’s a big chance for us to do something special for our program,” Splendorio said. “We’re looking forward to that opportunity.” Which team can execute most effectively should come out on top. Archived article by Charles Persons
By ryan September 29, 2000
Revenge is sweet. After seeing its Ancient Eight championship ambitions thwarted at the hands of a defeat to the Yale Bulldogs last year, the men’s soccer team is hoping to turn the tables Saturday night when its foes from New Haven come to town. A win would result in an early 2-0 start in league play and place the Red on track to remain highly competitive for the crown. Yet Yale, the defending Ivy League champions, should present a formidable challenge. After advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament last year and tallying a school-record 13 wins, Yale remains among the favorites for the league title. The squad is noted for its stingy defense. Danny Moss, who controls the action between the pipes, has been named the team’s captain after coming off a season in which he posted a dominating 1.03 goals against average. The senior’s play contributed to the daunting .526 shutout percentage the team owned. Sophomore Jay Alberts will likely earn the attention of the Red’s defense. The midfielder had an awe-inspiring freshman season, garnering All-Ivy honors in a campaign which saw him notch 21 points, 15 coming in Ancient Eight competition. It was the best point output by an Yale freshman in the program’s history. The Whitfield School graduate even caught the eye of Soccer America, who named him to its All-Freshman team. An All-New England team member, Alberts is joined by a corp of talented midfielders including senior Matt Schmidt, junior James Pearce, and sophomores John Walker and Nick Morris. Yale was weakened by the graduation of prolific scorers Jac Gould and Phil Harris. Despite losing these offensive threats, the Bulldogs should be strengthened by a strong front line of diaper dandies including Justin Burton, Allen Cerasani and Mike Hollington. The Bulldogs come into Ithaca owning a 3-4 mark. For the visitors, the contest will mark the opening of their Ivy League campaign. Moss continues to be a stalwart in net — all of Yale’s wins have come as the result of shutouts. The Red return to the East Hill coming off a solid performance against regional-rival Colgate. On the positive end of a 3-1 decision, the booters improved to 3-2 (1-0, Ivy). Senior Adam Skumawitz continues to strike fear in the hearts of defenders. The Ivy League Player of the Week continued to dominate having tallied a pair of goals in each of his last two games. Friday’s game marked the first time the Californian has scored two goals in a single game. He now has nine points in the last two games, a record since Bryan Scales took over patrol of the sidelines at Berman Field. Cornell will continue to look to all-time assist leader senior tri-captain Rick Stimpson to establish offensive opportunities. The Chesire, England, native had an unassisted goal to open the scoring in last Tuesday’s contest against the Red Raiders. The Red will likely counter Moss with sophomore Doug Allen, who recorded his fourth career victory with six saves in the seventy-three minutes he played at Hamilton. Scales inserted fellow Californian Andrew Gordon for the final 17 minutes against Colgate. It was Gordon’s first start at the varsity level. The road to the title will continue, with the contest being slated for a 7 p.m. start time on Saturday evening at Berman Field. Archived article by Gary Schueller