Oct. 20, 2009

Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y. - One hundred and ten minutes were not enough to decide a winner as Lafayette and Cornell played each other to a scoreless tie in men's soccer action on Tuesday night. Shots were not hard to come by--the teams combined for 33--but goals certainly were and the Leopards picked up their second scoreless tie of the fall.

With just over a minute left in the second overtime period, junior B.J. Glenn came inches away from ending the game when he had a breakaway that beat Cornell goalie Rick Pflasterer, but his shot hit off the post and marked the final scoring opportunity for either team.

Lafayette goalie Philip Nelson made six saves to help preserve the shutout. Freshmen Sean Peckham, Kyle Scharfenberg and Blake Fink combined for 12 of the Leopards' 20 shots and were two of eight players who recorded at least one shot in the match. Pflasterer was forced to make 11 saves against the Lafayette offense.

The Leopards (7-5-2) put the pressure on Cornell (5-4-4) from the start, firing off three shots in the opening five minutes, but two were saved by Pflasterer and the other was blocked. Nelson was forced into action in the 12th minute and he came up with another save with 1:27 to play in the opening half, keeping it a 0-0 game as the teams went into halftime.

The second half started out much like the first as the Leopards took the first three shots of the period, all in a span of five minutes. The squads traded shots for the remainder of regulation, but neither team had a real scoring threat over the final eight minutes, forcing overtime.

Lafayette out-shot the Big Red 8-0 in the two overtime periods with four of those coming in the final five minutes. Unfortunately none got past Pflasterer, who made five saves in the final overtime period to prevent the Leopards from leaving Ithaca with a win.

Lafayette returns to Patriot League play on Sunday with a 1 p.m. match at Army.