Matthew Mister

After falling a goal behind Brown on Saturday, the Yale men’s soccer team drew even late in the game, looking to take the match into overtime. But the Bears stole Yale’s hope for a comeback victory when they found the back of the net twice in the final two minutes to win 3–1 in regulation.

Following one of their best performances of the year, a 3–1 victory over St. Joseph’s, the Elis (3–9–2, 1-–4–1 Ivy) entered Saturday’s contest against Brown (8-–7–1, 3–2–1) at the top of their game. But the high of the previous win could only be matched by the eventual low of Saturday’s last-minute defeat. Despite the disappointing loss, head coach Kylie Stannard was proud of the way his team fought.

“We had a lot of guys leave everything they had on the field in a tough and physical contest, so when they scored their second goal, I really felt for them because they didn’t deserve to lose like that after having worked so hard,” Stannard said. “Competition at this level is unforgiving, but it’s moments like these that will create even more hunger to dig in even deeper and focus even more to find ways to get results like this in the future.”

For the game’s first 45 minutes, the scoreboard rested at zero for the Bulldogs and Bears. Brown had just one shot on target, while Yale had zero.

But the second half would provide more than enough action to make up for the uneventful first. Brown broke the ice in the 57th minute. With eight consecutive passes, the Bears swung the ball back and forth across the field and delivered a cross into the box. Will Cross found the end of Jackson Goebel’s pass and smashed in a header for the tally.

Yale rallied to respond in just under 17 minutes. The game-tying goal began with a long throw-in from freshman defender Justin Lobe ’20. Lobe’s toss forced a Brown player, under duress, to head the ball out of bounds for a corner, which Dylan Onderdonk-Snow ’17 took. Center-back and captain Henry Flugstad-Clarke ’17 connected with the curling pass on an acrobatic volley, sending a line drive toward goal. The shot smashed into the post, ricocheted back behind the goalie and directly into the feet of Yale defender Andrew Carton ’20, who knocked the ball into the twine.

This score was not the first time that the team captain made his mark offensively. Flugstad-Clarke is leading the team with four goals and his assist in the contest against Brown gives him nine points for the season, tied for first on the team.

“He’s been honestly amazing,” said midfielder Josh Totte ’18 of his captain. “We are extremely dangerous on set pieces because he is an absolute animal in the box, and it shows with his four goals.”

Carton’s goal marked the first time his name appeared on the scorecard in his brief career. The freshman’s effort is indicative of the talent amongst the youth of the team: of the team’s 11 players who have tallied a goal or an assist this year, six are freshmen.

According to Carton, he was proud to contribute to the team’s offense, especially with a conference win on the line.

“It’s always nice to score a goal, especially as a defender,” Carton said. “For my first goal to come as an equalizer in an Ivy game was even better.”

Fourteen minutes later, neither team had found a way to break the tie, and in the 89th minute the game seemed destined for overtime. But with only 108 seconds left to play, Brown put a dagger through the heart of Yale’s comeback hopes.

Driving forward, a Brown midfielder sent an entry pass into the box to Cross, who held off his man and slipped a pass through the box. Quinn English guided the pass farther across to a streaking Louis Zingas, who one-timed the shot back across the grain and past Yale goalie Kees Schipper ’19.

With less than two minutes to play, Yale put everything it had into an equalizing attempt. But in the push to find a tying goal, Yale exposed itself, and, after a miscommunication between Flugstad-Clarke and Schipper, Brown’s Cross found himself in front of an open net with the ball at his feet.

“Their third goal only happened because we were trying to press everyone high at the very end,” Stannard said. “I’m not concerned about that one.”

Yale will have one more chance to tack on another Ivy league win in its final game against Princeton at 4 p.m. on Saturday.