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ITHACA, N.Y. – Atticus DeProspo is a man of many interests. He serves as an on-campus tour guide, he works behind the scenes on stage productions and his internship this past summer with a U.S. Senator fueled his love of politics.

On the soccer pitch, DeProspo is just as versatile.
 
Listed as a defender coming in to Cornell his freshman year, the now-sophomore spent all of that first season playing midfield. This season, he is spending time at left defender when the team needs him there, and he has even played a more attacking role. He scored his first Cornell goal last week against Hartwick, but DeProspo says he is comfortable wherever the team needs him, and his teammates agree.
 
“Whatever position that needs to be filled, or when a player gets injured and [DeProspo] has to move back to the left back, you can trust him,” senior midfielder Nico Nissl said. “He's one of those players you can trust to get the job done wherever he is.”
 
When he came in, DeProspo had been at home in the outside left defender position, where he played for all of high school. But with junior Jake Rinow entrenched at left back, DeProspo moved up to left midfield.
 
The move breathed new life into his game.
 
“It kind of made me find my love of soccer again,” DeProspo said. “It's a new, refreshing experience of starting the sport almost all over again, learning something new about the game by playing that different position.”
 
He started 12 games in the midfield last season and played in 15 of the team's 16, earning more minutes than all but six field players. This year, as part of an undefeated Big Red team that travels to Harvard for a 3:30 p.m. game on Saturday, DeProspo has also spent some time going back to his roots in the left defensive spot. There, he has provided a stable alternative when other players missed games due to injury.
 
“Atticus is a very complete and consistent player,” Rinow said. “Every team needs a player like him to be successful.”
 
He has also added another dimension to his game this season. At the urging of assistant coach Joe Schneck, DeProspo began to slide up into the attacking side of things, contributing his first two college assists and scoring his first college goal. Against Hartwick last Tuesday, he took a perfect cross from Tyler Regan and tapped it home to put the Big Red up 4-1.
 
“The only reason I scored that goal is Coach Schneck has been pushing me so much to get more aggressive and offensive minded,” DeProspo said. “I'm glad that he did that because I don't know if I would have had it in myself to work on adding that aspect to my game.”
 
With four points on the season, he is Cornell's fifth-leading scorer.
 
Away from soccer, DeProspo wears many hats as well. As a tour guide on campus, he gets to spread his love of Cornell by explaining the figures in the stained-glass windows of Sage Chapel to detailing the history of Willard Straight Hall.
           
DeProspo also has a love of theater that stems from his family's many trips to Broadway. With that passion, he has become a light board operator and stage manager for multiple events and is minoring in theater production.
 
“I'm more on the production side because I can't really sing, act or dance,” he said. “I have a love for theater. It works the creative aspect of my brain, and it's a nice, fun thing I enjoy doing.”
 
He was a stage manager for the 2012 Locally Grown Dance Festival and will soon be acting in a professor's production called “The Edge of the Gorge.”
 
But more than anything, DeProspo's true love is politics. As an intern for Florida Senator Marco Rubio this past summer, he worked in constituent services, helping citizens with issues ranging from visa requests to social security setup. That job, he said, reaffirmed the fact that he wants to spend the rest of his life helping others in politics.
 
After college, he plans to attend law school and work in the private sector running for a seat in Congress or the Senate. Ultimately, his aspirations are even loftier.
 
“My far-reaching goal would be President of the United States, but that's like saying you want to be a professional soccer player for Manchester United,” DeProspo said. “The reason I want to do it is because I really enjoy helping other people. I've been blessed with so many opportunities in life that I want to help other people get those opportunities.”
 
Before he can get there, though, DeProspo has plenty more college soccer ahead of him. Whether he's playing his original left defensive position or up at left midfield, he's just glad to contribute.
 
“Obviously wherever the team needs me is where I'll play,” he said. “I'm happy just doing whatever I can.”
 
MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #10: No. 18 Cornell at Harvard
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Oct. 6, 4 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Soldiers Field (Cambridge, Mass.)
SERIES RECORD: Harvard leads 38-21-15
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 3-1 on Oct. 8, 2011
2012 RECORDS | LEAGUE STANDING: Cornell (9-0, 1-0 Ivy League | t-1st), Harvard (1-5-2, 0-0-1 | t-4th)
LIVE STATS: Harvard Stats
LIVE VIDEO: Harvard Video
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Still undefeated and untied after nine games, the Cornell men's soccer team is currently in the middle of the greatest start in team history. Daniel Haber continues to lead the nation with 14 goals, the rest of the offense is starting to click as well, and the Big Red defense is holding off the opposition successfully. Cornell already has more wins than it picked up all of last year, and the team can reach double digit victories on Saturday against the Crimson. Cornell won its Ivy League opener against Penn last weekend, downing the Quakers 3-2 on goals by Haber, Conor Goepel and Stephen Reisert.
 
HEAD COACH JARO ZAWISLAN
Now in his fourth year with the Big Red program, Jaro Zawislan has unquestionably put his stamp on the team. With a stifling defense and an aggressive offense, Zawislan has transformed what was a 1-15 team before his arrival into an 8-2-6 team in 2011 and a potential contender for the Ivy League title in 2012. Zawislan, a native of Poland, holds a 27-16-15 record during his time in Ithaca. He played soccer for four years at Clemson and then spent time professionally in the United States and Poland.
 
ABOUT HARVARD
The Crimson, based in Cambridge, Mass., is 1-5-2 on the season with its lone victory coming against Michigan State. Harvard has scored just five goals in eight games, tied for the lowest offensive production in the Ivy League. In its Ivy League opener against Yale last weekend, the teams played to a scoreless draw. Harvard has not won in nearly a month. No one player on the roster has more than one goal, and the team has earned just one assist on its five goals. Harvard has split time between two freshman goalies, as Joe Festa has a 1.35 goals against average and Evan Mendez has a 1.92 GAA.
Harvard is coached by Carl Junot, now in his third year leading the Crimson.
 
THE SERIES WITH HARVARD
Harvard has a decided advantage against Cornell lifetime, winning 38 games in the series to the Big Red's 21. Cornell, though, claimed last year's meeting by a 3-1 margin thanks to goals by Daniel Haber, Chase Aaronson and Conor Goepel after falling behind 1-0 in the 33rd minute. The Crimson's last victory over Cornell was in 2008.
 
A WIN AGAINST HARVARD WOULD…
…be Cornell's 10th victory of the year, giving the team double-digit wins for the first time since 1999 (11)…start the season 10-0-0 for the first time in program history…be the 10th consecutive victory for Cornell, its longest winning streak since 11 consecutive wins in 1995...increase the school record for consecutive games with a goal to 25 contests…be its second consecutive victory against the Crimson…start Ivy League play at 2-0 for the second consecutive year and third time since 2005.
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
For a one-goal, three-assist week where he was instrumental on almost every Big Red score, forward Tyler Regan was named the Ivy League's Player of the Week on Monday. Cornell has now had a player win Player of the Week in four of the first five weeks of the season.
 
OFFENSIVE SEASON
With Stephen Reisert's game-winning goal against Penn, the Big Red eclipsed its offensive output from all of 2011. The team scored 25 goals that year, and Reisert's strike was the 26th goal of this year. The team still has a little less than half its season to go.
 
LAST WEEK IN THE IVY LEAGUE
Besides the Big Red's victory against Penn, three other Ivy League games were played last Saturday. Princeton defeated Dartmouth 2-1 in overtime and Brown knocked off Columbia 2-1 in regulation, giving both winners three points and a tie for first place with Cornell. Harvard and Yale played to a scoreless draw, and they are tied for fourth place with one point. Dartmouth, Brown and Penn are tied for sixth in the league.
 
COMEBACK KIDS
Cornell has trailed four times this season, all by 1-0 deficits in the first half. All three times, though, the Big Red has managed to come from behind for the victory. Down 1-0 at halftime against Wofford on Sept. 16, Cornell went on to win 2-1. Trailing 1-0 at halftime against Saint Joseph's on Sept. 22, the Big Red scored twice in four minutes to open the second half and eventually win 3-2. Behind 1-0 just 21 seconds into the Hartwick game on Tuesday, Cornell came back for a 4-1 victory. Finally, against Penn on Saturday, Cornell was down 1-0 and scored three consecutive goals in 10 minutes on its way to a 3-2 victory.
 
NATIONALLY RANKED
Now at 9-0, Cornell has remained in the national rankings for a third consecutive week. The Big Red is now No. 18 in the NSCAA Coaches' Poll, up from No. 22 last week. This is the Big Red's highest ranking since 1996, when it was as high as No. 15 during the year.
Soccer America has Cornell the country's No. 22 team one week after it was No. 23. Cornell also moved up six spots in College Soccer News' rankings, up to No. 23 from No. 29. SoccerTimes.com has Cornell in the rankings for the first time this year, where the Big Red is at No. 23.
 
AMONG THE UNBLEMISHED
Cornell is one of just two teams remaining in the country that have not lost or tied a game yet. Besides the Big Red, Marquette is still unblemished at 10-0-0. High Point was the other team that remained at the start of the week, but the Panthers tied a game on Wednesday night and are now 9-0-1.
 
MULTI-GOAL GAMES
Before the 2012 season, no Cornell player had scored more than one goal in a game since 2008. This year, junior Daniel Haber already has five multi-goal games. He scored twice at Loyola Marymount on Sept. 2, three times against Buffalo on Sept. 9, two times at Binghamton last Wednesday, twice against Saint Joseph's on Sept. 22 and twice against Hartwick on Sept. 25. His 14 goals on the year have already bested his 2011 total by four.
 
RECORD BROKEN
With Peter Chodas' goal at Binghamton, the Big Red officially broke a Cornell record that stood for 41 seasons. The 1970 and 1971 teams had combined for 21 consecutive contests with a goal. Chodas' score, though, made 22 straight games for the Big Red with a goal dating back to the 2011 season opener. Cornell can extend its own record to 26 on Saturday.
 
FIVE GOALS
Cornell's five-goal outburst against Binghamton was the team's first five-goal game since Sept. 22, 2001 against Adelphi. Cornell has not scored six goals in a single game since Oct. 31, 2000 against Army.
 
NATIONAL STATISTICS
Cornell continues to rank high up in the country in multiple statistical categories as of Monday. Cornell moved up from seventh to fourth in the nation in scoring offense (2.89 goals per game). Cornell is also third in total goals (26), 31st in goals against average (0.78), 11th in total assists (23) and fourth in total points (75).
Individually, Daniel Haber remains on top of the nation in points per game (3.67), goals per game (1.56), total goals (14) and total points (33) as of Monday's stats. Haber, Nico Nissl and Tyler Regan are also tied for 15th in the country with five assists each. Goalie Rick Pflasterer has the 36th-best goals against average (0.791) in the country.
 
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
On Saturday:
• Daniel Haber moved sole possession of fifth in school history in career goals.
• Nico Nissl earned his 10th career point.
• Patrick Slogic eclipsed 3,500 career minutes.
• Conor Goepel earned his 15th career point.

Coming soon:
• Patrick Slogic will reach five goals when he scores next.
• Nico Nissl's next appearance will be his 50th.
• Daniel Haber is four goals away (28) from a fourth-place tie in team history for career goals, and his next goal will be his 25th. He is six points away from a tie for fifth all-time in points (65), and his next point will be his 60th. His next assist will put him eighth all-time in team history (12).
• Zach Zagorski is one save shy of 10.

UP NEXT
Cornell plays its final non-conference game of the season, squaring off against Colgate at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. The game will be played in Hamilton.