It was déjà vu for the men’s soccer team this weekend, as the Red split its two games at the Princeton Invitational in Princeton, N.J. Cornell suffered a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of nationally-ranked Monmouth on Friday before rebounding in commanding fashion –– as it had done two weekends ago against Hartwick –– for a 1-0 shutout of Fairleigh Dickinson on Sunday. This time around, however, it was sophomore forward Chase Aaronson who provided the second-half heroics.

“I was just really happy. I was mostly happy that we won the game,” said Aaronson, who is in his first year with the soccer team after making the transition from track. “It was fun.”

The Red (3-2-1) kicked things off on Friday evening, refusing to yield to the 6-0 Hawks for the first 40 minutes of the contest before conceding a goal from junior forward Ryan Kinne. Kinne would duplicate this effort only two minutes later, securing a 2-0 advantage for Monmouth off the rebound of a shot by junior forward Chase Barbieri.

“We started the game very well. We knew that before the game the key ... was not to allow Monmouth a very good quick start to the game, not to let them take initiative,” said head coach Jaro Zawislan.

Despite being in the hole following the conclusion of the first half, Cornell came out of the break determined to prove that it wasn’t going to go away quietly. Within the first five minutes of the second half, freshman midfielder/forward Nico Nissel got the Red on the board with his first career goal, and only the third one allowed by the Hawks all season. Six-shooter: Junior midfielder Scott Caldwell (11) made his presence felt this weekend, tallying two shots against Monmouth and four against Fairleigh Dickinson.

“Coming out of halftime I was really proud how the team reacted. We didn’t cave in, and we didn’t give in to the situation,” Zawislan said. “We came out and we knew we needed to get one goal at a time back on the board, and we responded with an early goal in the second half ... that made it a good game again.”

That would prove the extent of Cornell’s scoring drive, however. Five minutes later Barbieri and Kinne tag-teamed yet again to restore Monmouth’s two-goal advantage; this time around it was Barbieri tapping in a pass from Kinne across the box. Freshman midfielder Ryan Clark would put the game away for the Hawks in the 84th minute, netting a cross from freshman midfielder Cody Calafiore on the right flank. With the victory, Monmouth ran its unbeaten streak to six and snapped Cornell’s at three.

“We played more of their game rather than more of our game,” Aaronson added. “We missed a lot of opportunities.”

Over the course of the game, the Hawks were much more persistent on offense, outshooting the Red 22-9, while Cornell was arguably more aggressive –– committing more than twice as many fouls with 21. Both teams registered three corner kicks, and junior goalkeeper Scott Brody made five saves in the losing effort.

“Did Monmouth do enough to win the game? Definitely –– credit to their team; they executed, they put away the chances when they had them,” Zawislan said. “For us, we needed to be a little bit sharper in our defensive third, especially on the set pieces and then ... executing or putting away the chances that we had, and we didn’t do it on that given day.

In pointing to where the team could stand to improve, Aaronson said, “We don’t [always] have good transitions –– sometimes we get caught off guard. Our talent on the team is unbelievable, and I think that right when everything starts clicking ... like defense, to midfield, to forwards ... as long as the forwards keep finishing ... we’ll clear even our own expectations of how good we can really be.”

Indeed, the Red gave some indication of how good it could be on Sunday night, as it took on Fairleigh Dickinson (2-4) –– a team that won the Northeast Conference championship last season and advanced to the NCAA tournament –– to close out the Princeton Invitational.

“The defense stepped up a lot. We just played much better on Sunday than we did on Friday,” Aaronson said.

The Red once again displayed its knack for having a short memory following a tough loss with only one day’s recovery time.

“We came out very strong, again creating four or five really good chances at the beginning of the game. We didn’t put any away, but we had the momentum at the beginning of the game. Then, as it happens often in the game, the momentum shifted back and forth,” Zawislan said.

In what has become a sort of trend for Cornell, the Red followed up a scoreless first half with an early offensive surge in the second to give Cornell its first lead of the weekend. This one came on an assist from senior forward Matt Bouraee to Aaronson, who faked his way around Fairleigh Dickinson’s sophomore goalkeeper Juho Illi and netted what would prove to be the game-winning goal.

“Having scored the goal at the beginning of the second half, that gave us the advantage that we needed for the rest of the game,” Zawislan said.

“It was an unbelievable pass by Bouraee; I was just really happy that I could contribute,” Aaronson added. “Bouraee coached me ... the whole game ... told me where to go and what to do, so I kind of just looked for that. Most of the players on the team are more experienced than me, so I’m just relearning soccer.”

Aaronson added that while Zawislan has yet to name captains, there are certain players that everyone on the team looks up to, particularly those who play a comparable position. For Aaronson, those players are Bouraee and junior Brett Sumpio –– both forwards like him.

“Everyone has like a big brother on the team,” he said.

Brody rebounded from Friday’s loss with a five-save effort en route to his second shutout of the season, which Aaronson acknowledged is “a pretty big deal.”

“FDU definitely pushed hard for an equalizer, but we did a much better job in our defensive third on the field and on the set pieces to absorb the pressure, and [our] goalkeeping was very sound,” Zawislan said. “It was a total team effort on both sides of the ball, defensively and attacking.”

Cornell outshot FDU 13-9 on the night, and also topped the Hawks in corner kicks, 3-1. In addition, three of the Red’s players were named to the top 11 of the four-team tournament: Brody, Bouraee and Aaronson.

Whereas last season the Red often found itself catering to its opponent’s game plan, this year the team is focused on maintaing its setup and forcing the other team to adapt. Furthermore, the overall team attitude has undergone a noticeable transformation.

“It doesn’t matter if we win, lose, or tie the last game,” Zawislan said. “We know that we start the next game with the result 0-0 on the scoreboard. Whatever happened on Friday, it doesn’t really help us or hurt us. We still have to earn everything we get out of that game.”