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Utility-Man Yonga Lives to Serve

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Senior co-captain Joe Yonga has perfected a certain style of leadership, an expansion on the idea of leading by example. Yonga does everything and goes everywhere, trying to show his teammates the way in all aspects of the game.
The self-described jack-of-all-trades came to Cornell as a center midfielder. After coming off the bench in the first two games his freshman year, he has started every game since.
And as the former Bio major has exchanged that field for Economics, circumstances have moved Yonga to the backfield — where he serves as the Red’s defensive anchor.

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Men’s Soccer Drops One-Run Ivy League Tuneup at Home

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Though the men’s soccer team lost Friday at Berman Field, 1-0, this was the real home opener for the Red.
The contest between Cornell (1-6) and in-state rival Binghamton (5-1-3) — decided by only one goal and featuring strong performances on both ends of the field — was the type of game the Red wished it had as its home opener two weeks ago, when visiting Albany crushed a demoralized Cornell, 4-0.
It came at the perfect time, as the Red will open Ivy play this coming weekend.
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The players emphasized the clear differences between the two home outings.

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Final Day Arrives to Register for Hockey Line Number

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Today is the last day to register for the chance to purchase one of the 1,600 season men’s ice hockey tickets, the last day to receive that all-important line number. After a random drawing, the ranges of line numbers — which are eligible to camp out overnight for the actual tickets — will be posted on cornellbigred.com on Monday.
Any student who still wants to get season tickets should report to the Ticket Office inside the main entrance of Bartels Hall today between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

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Bouraee’s Talent Recognized Early

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A little over 10 minutes into Sunday’s matchup at Lafayette, junior forward Matt Bouraee gave the men’s soccer team a one-goal lead. The speedy forward, whose natural skills tend to make him a breakaway machine, had to work for it, using several fakeouts and having the good luck of a defender slipping and falling to the ground in his wake.
Bouraee’s first thought after scoring the goal: “Finally.”
It was his first goal of the 2008 season, a season in which Bouraee is expected to build on a standout sophomore season that saw the Manasquan, N.J., import become Cornell’s leading scorer for the year.

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Red Looks to Reestablish Run

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The running backs, like any other athletes, have concrete goals for the upcoming season: gain yards, win games and so on. One of the most important objectives, however, cannot be measured so easily.
“Something we’ve really been working on is trying to be a dynamic player on the field,” said fifth-year senior Luke Siwula. “If the opportunity arises, we can take it and make a big play and make a big touchdown run. … It could be a gamebreaker. That’s something we’ve really been focusing on.”
And the Red backs know they can do it.
“We’re pretty young, but we are one of the most talented groups on the team,” said junior Randy Barbour.

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Siwula Comes Back for More

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The 2005 season was a turning point for tailback Luke Siwula, as well as the entire football program. Finishing with its first overall winning record (6-4, 4-3 Ivy) since 1999, optimism was on the rise. Cornell, however, was hoping for more than the last few years have brought.
But now the Red is anticipating another big year, and Siwula doesn’t want to leave until it happens. The No. 5 all-time leading rusher at Cornell decided to return for a fifth year after sitting out most of last season with an injury.
“I think he had some unfinished business,” said head coach Jim Knowles ‘87. “Here’s a guy who had 1,000 rushing yards in his first two seasons, first team All-Ivy.”

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The Sports Tradition

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Last semester, I was doing some reading for my Anthropology of Sport class. (Yes, reading, that thing we all deign to do if there isn’t a good game on or something else better happening around campus.) Barely halfway through the first chapter I saw a section about some ancient Egyptian murals that almost exactly demonstrated modern wrestling moves.
The page sort of stopped me in my tracks, which was bad since I was probably supposed to finish about three more chapters.

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Men’s Soccer Still Winless After Home Loss to Albany

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Berman Field was a somber place to be last night. After the men’s soccer team dropped its home opener to visiting Albany — giving up three second-half goals in the 4-0 loss — the shell-shocked squad leaned on each other in the post-game huddle.
“[We talked about how] we’ve got to keep our heads in it,” said senior co-captain Joe Yonga. “We’ve got to start taking pride in ourselves and in each other, and when we get back in practice we’re starting over from Day 1. It’s going to be a new season from here on out.”

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Men’s Soccer Offense Sees Spark in Losses

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The men’s soccer team has reached a turning point. While the Red is winless after two weeks of play — dropping its weekend matchups with Bucknell Friday night, 3-0, and New Hampshire yesterday afternoon, 2-1 — the struggling offense showed signs of life in controlling the first halves of both contests.
“It’s difficult to understand if you weren’t there,” said junior defender Brian Donovan. “Especially in the second game [of the weekend], we kept the ball for long periods of time but we were never able to make that final pass and put the ball in the net. We were making them run and possessing the ball … sometimes for six minutes at a time.”

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M. Soccer Looks to Rebound From Opening Week Losses

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When you fall off of a horse, common wisdom says to get right back on. After two shutout losses to open the season in California last weekend, the men’s soccer team got right on a plane back to Ithaca and is preparing for its next challenge. The Red arrived in Lewisburg, Penn., last night, set to take on host Bucknell tonight and the University of New Hampshire Sunday afternoon in the Days Inn Invitational.
“During [last] weekend, we weren’t communicating as much,” said senior defender Kevin Vieira. “But during practice [head coach Bryan Scales] has been going over film, and we’ve been doing all the right things to get better.”
In contrast to the Red’s rocky season-opening weekend, both Bucknell and New Hampshire have had strong starts.