Cornell’s men used a big three-goal second half to claim a key 4-1 Midwest Conference win over Grinnell Wednesday, Oct. 6.
The win saw Cornell extend its unbeaten streak to six matches.
Grinnell opened the scoring within the first four minutes of the match and was held there by the Ram defense.
Cornell evened the score at the 36-minute mark. Owen Smith played a long through ball to Zach Miller and he made no mistake blasting the ball off the crossbar and in from short range.
The second half was all Cornell. Just after the 64-minute mark, Greg Pappadakis was fouled in the box and earned a penalty kick. George Archer stepped up and converted his third PK in the last two matches. Five minutes later, Andrew Lopez and Zach Miller led a swift counter attack for the Rams which saw Miller feed Lopez to make the score 3-1.
Will Bickel started the match in goal and recorded five saves in his 87 minutes of action. Jeremy Spina subbed in for the last three minutes and made one save.
Earlier in the week, Cornell earned a win against Iowa Wesleyan in a 4-2 match-up.
Cornell (9-2) won three penalty kicks and converted all of them on their way to their 5th straight victory.
The only goal scored from open play for the Rams was scored by Zach Miller just four minutes into that match. Gaurab Khadka assisted Miller for the goal.
At the 22 minute-mark, George Archer was fouled in the box and converted the first penalty kick for Cornell. The Iowa Wesleyan keeper guessed correctly but couldn’t make the save. At 41 minutes in, Blake Soto scored the second penalty kick of the match, sending the keeper the wrong way, to take the Rams into halftime up 3-0.
Will Bickel played the first 45 minutes of the match between the posts for Cornell and made one save. Jeremy Spina came in after halftime and played the first 31 minutes of the second half and made one save.
Bickel came back in to finish out the match and recorded his second save of the evening,
The Rams outshot the Tigers 18-16 for the game.