When the men’s soccer team met Dartmouth in New Haven on Saturday, the two teams had very different things at stake. The Red was searching for its first Ivy League win while the Green was hoping to remain in contention for the Ivy League championship. After goals from Andrew Olsen and Lucky Mkosana propelled Dartmouth to a 2-0 victory, Cornell is still looking for that first win against a team from the Ancient Eight.

With the win, the Green finds itself in a tie for second place, just one point back of first place Harvard.

“The credit has to go to the Dartmouth team,” said head coach Jaro Zawislan. “They put away the chances that they had. They have good players, they are an experienced team, and they look like they are definitely going to be in the running for a NCAA at-large bid and they are still in contention for the Ivy League championships.”

Both teams exchanged chances in the first half, but neither side was able to find the back of the net.It’s the effort: Senior forward/midfielder J.J. Bain fights for the ball with a St. Bonaventure defender on Sept. 13. Bain had one shot on goal against the Green on Saturday, out of just two had by the Red overall.

It appeared as though the Red went up 1-0 in the middle of the first half off of a throw-in set play. Sophomore midfielder Jimmy Lannon threw in a ball from the side towards the Dartmouth goal. In the ensuing scramble, senior forward Matt Bouraee collected the ball and sent it home just underneath the crossbar. However, the referees ruled that Dartmouth goalkeeper Sean Donovan had been fouled, and the goal was called back.

“Sometimes those calls go your way and sometimes those calls go against you,” Zawislan said. “We had a long throw in by Jimmy going into the goal mouth. The idea was to put the keeper under pressure. [Donovan] dropped the ball on that play. There were definitely people going up for the ball. Our players were going up for the ball and their players too. He dropped the ball and Matt [Bouraee] put it away, but the referee called it back.”

Freshman goalie Rick Pflasterer made seven saves in the game, including four in the first half. Senior forward J.J. Bain explained that Pflasterer put on a very impressive performance and made some key saves to keep the game close.

“[Pflasterer] played great,” Bain said. “He made one breakaway save, and he caught a lot of crosses. He caught almost every save, limiting second chances. He was really solid for us.”

“Rick has seized the opportunity to play and he has been doing very well,” Zawislan said. “He came up with some saves on the line; he came up with some reaction, point-blank saves. But also, the big thing is that he’s been helping us out with some set-pieces like long throw-ins and the free kicks and corner kicks on the defensive side. He commanded the box very well. He takes care of what he needs to take care of in terms of crosses and serves in the air into the box.”

Dartmouth took just eight minutes of the second half to finally break the 0-0 deadlock. In the 53rd minute, a Cornell turnover near midfield allowed Mkosana and Olsen to come streaking into the Cornell zone together. Mkosana passed the ball off to Olsen, who fired a shot to the left side that beat Pflasterer, putting the Green up 1-0.

“Their early goal in the second half opened up the game for Dartmouth,” Zawislan explained. “Unfortunately, we kind of created a little bit of a mess for ourselves on the first goal because we gave the ball away in the middle of the field and that’s where they got they counter-attack. That created an opportunity for them that they utilized.”

“It was a very routine play, but the ball got mis-hit,” Bain said of the turnover. “That happens, everybody makes mistakes. Unfortunately, this one we had to pay for it. We can live with that because the desire was there.”

Dartmouth added another goal in the 72nd minute when junior Daniel Keat sent a pass up to Mkosana, who then ran passed a Cornell defender and sent a shot on net. Pflasterer was able to get a hand on it, but ball ricocheted off his hand and into the net, giving Dartmouth the 2-0 win.

The Green outshot the Red by a total of 16-6. Only two of Cornell’s shots made it on net and Donovan was able to keep both of those out. However, Zawislan explains that he saw many positive things from his players in Saturday’s game, keeping him optimistic that the squad should be able to get its first Ivy win when it hosts Columbia next Saturday in the last game of the season. He believes that the low shot count belies how the Red actually played in the game, particularly in the first half when his team controlled the play for significant stretches.

“In the first half, there was a period of time where we had quite a few good possessions and it seemed like we had the momentum going our way,” Zawislan said. “You could look at the box score and say there were only so many shots on frame, but there was a lot of end to end action. There were quite a few opportunities for both teams to put the ball in the back of the net.”