The men’s soccer team is on the road again. Today, Cornell (4-4-2 overall, 0-3-2 Ivy) travels to West Point, N.Y., to take on Army (3-10-2 overall, 0-5-1 Patriot) at 7 p.m.
The key matchup to watch for is the duel between the goalies: Army’s junior Kevin Larrabee and Cornell’s junior Doug Allan. Both have been one of the few bright spots for their respective teams this season.
Larrabee has been twice tabbed as the Army Athletic Association’s athlete of the week. He has three shutouts on the season and a 1.42 goals against average.
In the Black Knights’ last game, the Holy Cross Crusaders stole a 2-1 victory from Army in overtime at West Point last Friday. Larrabee recorded two saves in the loss. The Crusaders kept their Patriot League record spotless on the season. Even with Larrabee’s accolades and efforts, Army remains winless in its last eight games.
The Red dropped a nail biter to Princeton last Friday night, 2-1, in double overtime. Allan came up huge again, though, making 10 saves and keeping the Red in the game. He has three shutouts so far and a 1.00 goals against average.
Good goalkeeping was not the determining factor in last year’s game on Halloween between the Black Knights and the Red. Freshman midfielder Ian Pilarski scored the game winner during the 27th minute. Army goalie, Tyler Donnell was peppered by a deluge of shots and goals in a 6-0 rout on Berman Field. Allan shutout Army in his 58 minutes of action before prematurely leaving the game with an injury.
Despite being “mathematically eliminated” from the race for the Ivy League championship, the Red must still defeat the Black Knights, a New York state regional rival, to have any chance at receiving an at-large bid from the NCAA committee for the season ending national championship tournament.
Archived article by Donald Lee