Men’s Soccer Continues Slide, Falls to Big Green

While Columbia’s football was able to shake its losing streak against Dartmouth, the Columbia men’s soccer team (3-10-1, 1-3-0 Ivy) was unable to do the same. In its second-to-last home game of the season, the Light Blue was defeated on Saturday by Dartmouth, 3-1.

The Lions came out slow, but Dartmouth started the game with a similar pace. At the end of the first half, the Light Blue had outshot the Big Green 4-3. Columbia was unable to find the back of the net on its shot attempts, as two shots went wide, one was blocked by a defender, and the last was saved by Dartmouth goalie Sean Milligan. The Light Blue emerged at the half down 1-0, thanks to a goal by Dartmouth’s Craig Henderson in the 33rd minute.

In the second half, both teams increased the intensity of their offense, and matched each other with eight shots each in the half. The determining factor, however, was Dartmouth’s leading scorer, freshman Lucky Mkosana. Mkosana scored his sixth and seventh goals of the season in the second half, getting past goalie Alex Aurrichio two minutes into the second half with a long-range shot from outside the penalty box and following it up with goal nine minutes later.

Dartmouth wouldn’t score again for the rest of the game, and Columbia tried to make a comeback in the time remaining, firing five more shots. The Lions were able to finish on their final attempt with less than three minutes left in the game, as senior Felipe Castrillon scored off of a corner kick from teammate Peter Morice. But the comeback effort fell short, as they Lions lost 3-1.

With their fourth consecutive loss, the Lions drop to seventh in the Ivy League. They will hit the road Saturday to face Yale, which has also gone 1-3-0 in conference play, in a game that gives the Lions a chance to pull ahead in the Ivy League standings.