Three minutes into the second half, forward Avery Schwartz ’16 found himself in a one-on-one breakaway situation against Dartmouth goalkeeper Noah Cohen. Yet Cohen was able to make a superb save on Schwartz’s attempt, blocking the Bulldogs’ best opportunity of the evening.
The men’s soccer team struggled to find the back of the net Saturday night in Hanover, losing 1–0 at Dartmouth. The loss leaves the Elis still searching for an Ivy League win.
“In a lot of ways it was a typical Ivy game. It was close, a lot of action, very competitive, very spirited and it was played at a high tempo,” head coach Brian Tompkins said. “But unfortunately for us, they got a goal at a very opportune time — well, inopportune time for us — and we weren’t able to answer with a goal of our own, even though we played well.”
Just as in the team’s previous game against Harvard, Yale (3–5–3, 0–1–1 Ivy) again started strong on Saturday.
Captain Bobby Thalman ’13 said the Bulldogs outplayed the Big Green (5–5–0,1–1–0 Ivy) for most of the first half, but ended up letting Dartmouth score “a scrappy kind of goal.”
Attacking from the left side, a Dartmouth player was able to evade two Yale tackles before firing a shot toward the right goalpost. Thalman blocked that initial attempt, but because of the charge up the left side, the Elis left the Big Green’s Sten Stray-Gundersen unmarked on the right side, who scored off the rebound in 42:00.
The Bulldogs created chances to tie the game during the second half, including Schwartz’s breakaway and a shot by forward Jenner Fox ’14 late in the half, but they were unable to convert their chances.
“I think it was kind of two-fold,” defender Nick Alers ’14 said. “I think one, we did get a decent number of chances and we weren’t able to put some of them away, but also I think Dartmouth was a team that I feel that we could have had a lot more chances than we actually did.”
Thalman expressed some frustration with the team’s performance, but he remained confident in the team’s ability to stay focused and improve on its ability to execute when the chance arises.
Despite the team grabbing only one point in its first two Ivy contests, Tompkins said that the team will continue striving to reach the top of the standings.
“At this stage of the season, there’s still everything to play for,” he said. “We’re certainly looking to fight our way back into contention for the title.”
The Bulldogs continue the season and will travel to Cornell next Saturday.