Stars never disappoint their fans. And with a deft touch, senior Ted Papadopoulos scored the lone goal in Cornell men soccer’s 1-0 win over Colgate in front of an exuberant Saturday night crowd on Berman Field.
The goal came in the 52nd minute as Papadopoulos trickled a shot into the low right corner past a sprawled out Colgate goalkeeper, Jon Brunell. Sophomore Doug Charton pinched a pass between two Red Raider defenders to his former Needham High School teammate, a cutting Papadopoulos, who found some space en route to his breakaway goal.
Not to be outdone, junior Doug Allan shut out Colgate, which had a flurry of chances in the beginning of the second half. The Red came out flat from the recess, but Allan saved it numerous times as the frustrated Colgate forwards found out all night long. Allan, with cool Californian style, smothered all of his saves and allowed no loose balls for Colgate to capitalize upon.
The stat sheet would show an even match in terms of scoring opportunities, but not all chances were created equal. Throughout the contest, Cornell had the better quality chances, as Colgate managed one more shot, 22-21, and had a 5-2 advantage on corner kicks.
“We’ve got a young team… and it showed at times, especially during the first 15 minutes, but then we started to knock the ball around and create opportunities,” said Allan.
During the first half, there were several chances for the Red, but none of them fully materialized into a tally. During the 29th minute, Charton flipped a shot over a charging Brunell, just past the right post. In the 34th Junior Scott Benowicz sent a good cross to sophomore Colin Nevison, who skipped his shot wide right.
“The hardest thing to do in soccer is score goals, but at least we were creating opportunities,” said head coach Bryan Scales.
The 45th minute featured another Benowicz and Nevison connection, as Nevison returned the favor and fed Benowicz. One-on-one with Colgate’s sweeper, Benowicz made two quick cuts, once to the right and then to the left and created another good chance, but pushed his shot just right.
“I’m really proud of our team… the young guys came though, especially the defense,” noticed Papadopoulos.
Freshman sweeper Scott Palguta opened up his collegiate campaign with a strong performance as he helped to shut down Colgate’s futile attempts to tie the match during the remainder of the second half. Colgate naturally pressed its defenders past the midline in the latter stages of the match, but to no avail.
“I’m pleased with the result… and getting out of here [with a win] against a team who has already played three games was good,” commented Scales, who continued to say that, “We need to work on staying focused for the whole 90 minutes… we put in a good 65, 70 minutes.”
The Red held on for the victory, but will look to be less passive and take the play to its opponents for the rest of the season. The men’s soccer squad will continue to find its mental game conditioning and will certainly come out sharper against Boston University next Saturday.
Archived article by Donald Lee