Skip To Main Content

Cornell University Athletics

msoc_Heck

Men's Soccer

Men's Soccer Wraps Up Season on Sunday at Columbia

ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's soccer team will travel to Columbia to take on the Lions on Sunday, Nov. 13 at 1 p.m. in the final game of the season.

The contest was originally scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 12 but has been moved as a result of Harvard's announcement last week that it was cancelling the final two 2016 men's soccer games. The rescheduling guarantees that all Ivy League men's soccer teams will play a full seven-game schedule, as Columbia has added a match against Penn on Wednesday, Nov. 9.
 
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #17: Cornell Big Red at Columbia Lions

WHEN: 1 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 13
WHERE: Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium – New York, N.Y.
2016 RECORDS: Cornell 1-13-2 (0-6-0 Ivy League), Columbia 11-3-1 (3-1-1 Ivy League)
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: GoColumbiaLions.com
LIVE UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameday
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell enters the final game of the season against Columbia still in search of its first Ivy League win of the year. Four of the team's Ancient Eight matchups have been decided by one goal. The team pushed Penn to overtime in the Ivy opener before dropping the game 2-1. On Saturday, Oct. 29, Princeton used two second half goals to win, 2-1, and on Oct. 23, Brown used a second half penalty kick to take the game, 1-0. This past Saturday, Dartmouth needed a corner kick goal in the second half to get the 1-0 win. … Cornell earned its first win of the season on Oct. 11 at Colgate, 3-2. … Cornell played a challenging non-conference schedule in 2016 – one that included four games in six days. Cornell took on Binghamton on Wednesday, Sept.14, and tied the Bearcats, 1-1, in extra time. The Big Red then returned home for the CU Inaria Classic and played Saint Francis on Friday, Sept. 16 – going to a second overtime period before ultimately falling, 2-1 – and then took on New Hampshire on Sunday, Sept. 18, dropping the game, 2-0. Cornell finished out the four game week against No. 3 Syracuse and gave the Orange a tough test but ultimately fell, 3-1. … The Big Red opened up Ancient Eight play with that tough loss to Penn before dropping consecutive games to Harvard and Yale.
 
ABOUT HEAD COACH JOHN SMITH
Smith comes to East Hill after spending four years at Stanford, two as associate head coach. In 2015, Smith helped lead the Cardinal to its first national title in program history and an 18-2-3 record, the team's most wins since 2002. Smith, who worked primarily with Stanford's strikers, was named NSCAA Far West Region Assistant Coach of the Year in 2014. Prior to his time in Palo Alto, Smith amassed a 62-26-10 record in six seasons as the head coach of Division II power Incarnate Word and spent time as an assistant coach at CSU Bakersfield. Smith is a graduate of Rollins, where he was two-time All-American. He was selected 13th overall by the Columbus Crew in the 1997 MLS Draft and played for two years in the A-League. He was named the Cornell men's soccer program's 12th head coach in March 2016.
 
IRONMAN
Junior defender Spencer Kopko is the only Big Red player to have played every single minute this season. The Ithaca native has logged 1,504 minutes – including two, 110 minute efforts in double-overtime battles against Central Connecticut State and Binghamton – in the 16 games that Cornell has played this season.
 
YOUNG BLOOD
The Big Red has seen several freshmen step into some big roles in their first season at Cornell. Brady Dickens leads the Big Red in scoring with two goals and two assists for six points. Fellow striker George Pedlow leads the team in shots on goal (18) and is fourth in scoring with two goals and one assist. Freshman goalkeeper Ryan Shellow has started 12 games in goal for the Big Red and made 64 saves while Riley Adams and Christophe Gerlach have both logged over 760 minutes.
 
LATE GAME GOALS
Senior Duff Bedrosian's 79th minute goal against Princeton on Oct. 29 was the third goal this year that Cornell has scored in the final 25 minutes of play. Senior Jack Ferguson scored the game-winning goal in the 87th minute in Cornell's 3-2 win over Colgate on Oct. 11, while junior Jonathan Cullom forced overtime against Saint Francis on Sept. 16 when he tied the game at two in the 86th minute.
 
SAVES BY SHELLOW
Freshman goalkeeper Ryan Shellow set a program record when he made 13 saves in the game against Syracuse on Oct. 13. The 13 saves are the third-most made in a single game this year in the NCAA. Shellow has made 64 saves in 2016 and is averaging 4.92 saves per game, both of which are tops in the Ivy League.
 
WEEKLY HONORS
Freshman George Pedlow earned the Ivy League Men's Soccer Rookie of the Week award for the week of Sept. 20-26. Pedlow scored in the 32nd minute against No. 2 Syracuse, becoming the first player in 2016 to score first in a game against Syracuse. Pedlow has also been named to the Weekly Honor Roll twice while classmates Ryan Shellow and Brady Dickens have earned a spot four times and two times, respectively.
 
AN ABUNDANCE OF OVERTIMES
The Big Red has played in five overtime games so far in 2016. In the first seven games that Cornell played this season, four of them went to overtime. The last – and only other time – the Big Red played in four overtime games through the first seven games played in a season came in 1995. Cornell went on to play in eight overtime games that year, the most in program history. The last season in which Cornell did not play in a single overtime game was 2008.
 
CAPTAIN'S ARMBANDS
Head coach John Smith has selected senior Zach Bialik and junior Eric Nuss to serve as the Big Red's captains for the 2016 season. Bialik, a midfielder, logged more than 60 minutes on 10 occasions in 2015. Nuss has started on defense in all 44 games he's played over the last two seasons and logged a team-leading 1,450 minutes in 2015.
 
INTERNATIONAL APPEAL
Cornell men's soccer is a diverse group, with players hailing from 15 different states and England, as senior JJ Black and freshman George Pedlow both come to the Big Red from England. Six players come from New York while California, Colorado and New Jersey have three representatives each.
 
THE SERIES WITH COLUMBIA
Columbia edged Cornell 1-0 in last season's finale at Berman Field, leaving the Big Red in sixth-place in the Ivy League and moving the Lions' all-time series lead to 32-22-9. However, Cornell is 3-1-1 in the last five games against Columbia, with the last victory coming in the form of a 1-0 overtime win in 2014's season finale.
 
ABOUT COLUMBIA
Columbia will play Penn for the second time on Wednesday night and will come into the game against Cornell with a chance to win the Ivy League title. The Lions hold an overall record of 11-3-1 and sit in a three-way, second-place tie in the Ancient Eight standings with a 3-1-1 league record. The lone Ivy loss came at the hands of Dartmouth, 1-0. The Lions played No. 15 Michigan State in the second game of the season, losing 2-1. … Arthur Bosua leads the lions with four goals and three assists for 11 points while Alex Bangerl and John Denis both of three goals each. Debus leads the team in shots on goal (16). Dylan Castanheira and Zach Adler have split time in goal for the Lions. Castanheira holds a 7-1-0 record and has a .870 save percentage to go with a stout .36 goals against average and five shutouts. Adler is 4-2-1 and has a .791 save percentage, 1.21 goals against average and two shutou
Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

Duff Bedrosian

#6 Duff Bedrosian

D
5' 9"
Senior
Zach Bialik

#17 Zach Bialik

MF
5' 8"
Senior
JJ Black

#8 JJ Black

MF/F
5' 10"
Senior
Jonathan Cullom

#7 Jonathan Cullom

F
6' 2"
Junior
Jack Ferguson

#15 Jack Ferguson

MF
6' 3"
Senior
Eric Nuss

#3 Eric Nuss

D
6' 3"
Junior
George Pedlow

#16 George Pedlow

F/MF
5' 10"
Freshman
Christophe Gerlach

#27 Christophe Gerlach

MF
6' 3"
Freshman
Brady Dickens

#19 Brady Dickens

F
6' 1"
Freshman
Riley Adams

#23 Riley Adams

D
5' 9"
Freshman
Ryan Shellow

#20 Ryan Shellow

GK
6' 0"
Freshman
Spencer Kopko

#33 Spencer Kopko

D
6' 2"
Junior

Players Mentioned

Duff Bedrosian

#6 Duff Bedrosian

5' 9"
Senior
D
Zach Bialik

#17 Zach Bialik

5' 8"
Senior
MF
JJ Black

#8 JJ Black

5' 10"
Senior
MF/F
Jonathan Cullom

#7 Jonathan Cullom

6' 2"
Junior
F
Jack Ferguson

#15 Jack Ferguson

6' 3"
Senior
MF
Eric Nuss

#3 Eric Nuss

6' 3"
Junior
D
George Pedlow

#16 George Pedlow

5' 10"
Freshman
F/MF
Christophe Gerlach

#27 Christophe Gerlach

6' 3"
Freshman
MF
Brady Dickens

#19 Brady Dickens

6' 1"
Freshman
F
Riley Adams

#23 Riley Adams

5' 9"
Freshman
D
Ryan Shellow

#20 Ryan Shellow

6' 0"
Freshman
GK
Spencer Kopko

#33 Spencer Kopko

6' 2"
Junior
D