ITHACA, N.Y. – Henry Hylbert and Emeka Eneli scored for Cornell, who successfully held off a spirited Dartmouth comeback attempt, as the Big Red logged its 12th victory of the season at Berman Field on Saturday afternoon, 2-1.

It was a great birthday present for the Dr. Daniel P. Wood Head Coach of Men's Soccer, John Smith, who fulfilled a team tradition of running through a tunnel created by players and coaches following a match on someone's birthday.

"It's not easy to win in the Ivy League," Smith stated after the match. "These games are so competitive, very physical, and not always that pretty on the eye. It becomes a battle and I think we did well within that battle to score two good goals, and felt we could have scored a few more. Their keeper made an incredible save with his feet. We make it interesting when they get back to 2-1, but we held strong. I'm proud of them for this performance."

Cornell's back line of Connor Drought, Cam Maquat, Nick Allen, and Andrew Johnson were impressive throughout the match, yielding just five Dartmouth shot attempts throughout the 90-minute match.

"They did really well," Smith said. "We defend with the whole group, but the back line, particularly when there's balls being pumped in there in the air, you've got to win a lot of first and second balls, and I thought that we we stayed strong. It was the one moment where they scored, but outside of that, it's tough to keep a good team out for 90 minutes and not give them good looks. We did a good job of that, outside of the goal. They really didn't get into any positions where they felt that we were really threatened."


The lone goal conceded by Cornell came by Oskar Magnusson in the 69th minute. Orrett Maine was credited with the assist on the Magnusson's tally.

Hylbert scored the game's first goal in the 37th minute following a set piece taken by Drought. The left-footed free kick was chipped from the center of the pitch over Dartmouth's three-man wall to the right post where Hylbert headed the ball to the far bottom corner of the goal.

Eneli made it a two-score game when he blistered a right-footed strike past Dartmouth goalkeeper Costi Christodoulou in the 56th minute.

Magnusson cut the Big Green deficit to one with his 69th-minute strike, but Cornell held Dartmouth to just one shot attempt for the remainder of the contest, which was stopped by freshman goalkeeper Ryan Friedberg.

Game Notes

• Saturday was the 72nd all-time meeting between Cornell and Dartmouth. With the win, the Big Red improved to 40-29-3 all-time over the Big Green and has won each of the last three matches.

• Cornell won its 12th match of the season, marking the most wins by a Big Red team since posting a 15-2-0 record in 2012. This year marks the seventh time a Cornell team has posted at least 12 wins in a year.

• With its two-goal effort on Saturday, Cornell has logged 11 multi-goal performances, which matches the output from last year. It is tied for the fourth-most multi-goal games in a season.

• Friedberg increased his freshman single-season wins record to 12 on Saturday, which is the third-most wins by a Cornell goalkeeper since wins were tracked beginning in 1979. Only Rick Pflasterer (15 in 2012) and Quinn O'Sullivan (14 in 1995) had more victories in a season.

Looking Ahead

• Cornell plays its final regular-season road match of the season next Saturday when the Big Red plays Yale. First touch from Reese Stadium in New Haven, Conn., is slated for 5 p.m. Game action will be broadcast on ESPN+.