Following Saturday’s shutout win at Adelphi, the men’s soccer team (2-1-1) will look to extend its winning streak to three as it visits Colgate tonight.
Cornell enters the game on a bit of a roll, after defeating St. Bonaventure last Wednesday prior to the weekend’s 1-0 win on Long Island. Freshman Andrew George scored the game’s only goal, the first of his career, in the win. Senior goalkeeper Doug Allan recorded 11 saves for his first shutout on the year.
The Raiders (2-2-2) will hope to rebound after suffering a tough 1-0 loss at the hands of conference rival Bucknell on Saturday. Colgate was stifled by the Bucknell defense throughout the game, only managing eight shots to the Bisons’ 17. Goalkeeper Will Martin tallied nine saves for the Raiders in the losing effort.
“They’re a difficult team to play against,” said head coach Bryan Scales. “They’re very organized and they work very hard.”
These two teams have a history of playing exciting soccer. In last year’s season opener, the Red eked out a tight 1-0 victory over Colgate when Ted Papadopoulos ’02 took advantage of a rare lapse in the Raider defense to score the game’s only goal. Tonight, the Red will attempt to repeat the victory, which it realizes is no easy task.
“We won’t employ any different strategy than always,” said Scales. “We just want to put pressure on the ball and not let them hit their spots. When we are on offense, we want to move the ball quickly.”
Despite the mediocre season record, Colgate boasts a dangerous team which has already recorded a win over St. Bonaventure and tied Duquesne, which has yet to lose a game at 5-0-2 on the season. In addition, all six of the games that the Raiders have played this year have been close, low-scoring battles, with the exception of a 4-1 win over Maine. Thus, a similar type game can be expected tonight.
Scales noted that the Raiders have typically been a difficult team to score on.
“They’re very good on restarts. They’re really not giving up many goals at all,” he said. “Our guys will need to be ready, and I think they are.”
Colgate also features a talented young roster, headlined by sophomores midfielder Peter Bourquin and defenseman Reed Grimes and freshman midfielder Sean O’Sullivan, all of whom earned all-tournament honors in the recent Raider Soccer Classic.
Following tonight’s game, the Red will return home to open the Ivy portion of its season Saturday against Penn.
Archived article by Owen Bochner