Andrew Dealy ’05 leads the Yale men’s soccer team with 11 points. But only four are owed to goals.

Dealy has seven assists on the season, four of which came yesterday as Yale surmounted a 2-0 deficit to edge Quinnipiac, 4-3, in Hamden.

The last place the Bulldogs (7-5-1, 2-1-0 Ivy) expected to be midway through the first half against the Bobcats (3-8-1) was down 2-0. A pair of breakdowns in the backfield allowed the Bobcats to take an early advantage.

“We were so dominant in the first few minutes, it sort of lulled the defense,” forward Alex Munns ’07 said. “But we never doubted that we would come back.”

Three minutes after Quinnipiac notched its second goal, Yale responded. Dealy sent a free kick that Jay Alberts ’04 snuck past Bobcats’ goaltender Kenneth Lewis at 28:47.

Dealy and Alberts hooked up again with five minutes left in the half to pull the Bulldogs even heading into the break. What followed was the second act of the Dealy show.

In the 65th minute, Dealy fed forward Lindsey Williams ’05 for the score with another free kick to give Yale its first lead of the game.

Quinnipiac knotted the score at 66:14, but at 86:56, forward Gage Hills ’07 scored the first goal of his collegiate career to snap the 3-3 tie. The Bulldogs held on for the 4-3 victory.

“Gage [Hills] did a great job up front for us,” defender Shannon Brooks ’06 said. “Hopefully he’ll be able to score more goals for us.”

It was Dealy, fittingly, who picked up the game-winning assist. Dealy blasted a free kick from just inside the left sideline to the back post, where Munns redirected it to Hills’ feet.

“Coach calls [Dealy] ‘the engine’ of the team,” Munns said. “He connects the plays from the defense to the offense. He’s the best center midfielder I’ve seen all year.”

The four goals scored was a season-high for the Bulldogs. Prior to yesterday’s eruption, Yale had scored more than one goal only once — in a 2-1 win over Stanford. Furthermore, the Bulldogs had scored a mere five goals in their last seven games.

“The monkey is off our back,” Munns said. “We proved to ourselves we can score. We’ve been waiting for a break-out game like this for a while now.”

The three goals allowed also equal a season-high for the Bulldogs. Yale surrendered three goals to Creighton in the second round of the Yale Soccer Classic on Sept 21.

Munns said the three goals the team allowed do not put any doubts on the defense, which has been the strong point for the team this season.

“It was good we were able to have the defensive lapses in a game in which we scored four goals,” Munns said.

Yale returns to action Saturday when it takes on the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

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