09/27/2008
Men's Soccer Falls Short Against MIT

WORCESTER, MASS. 09/27/08 - The MIT men's soccer team remained unbeaten and extended its winning streak to a program-best 10 games with a 2-1 win over host Clark University in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) contest on a rainy Saturday afternoon at Granger Field. Ranked 10th in New England by the latest National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) poll, the Engineers improve to 9-0-1 (1-0 NEWMAC), while Clark drops to 5-2-2 and 0-1-1 in league play.

Sophomore Christian Therkelsen (Nesbru, Norway) scored both of the Engineers goals.

MIT capitilized just under 10 minutes into the game when Therkelsen one-timed a crossing ball from Zachary Kabelac (Potomac, Md.) and lofted it into the far corner of the net to take a 1-0 lead.

Clark's Baran Doenmez (Dublin, N.H.) had a chance to tie it up minutes later, but his direct kick was turned away on a diving save by MIT goalie Tom Caldwell (East Berlin, Pa.).

Therkelsen increased the visitors lead (2-0) in the 17th minute. The sophomore forward collected a punt from Caldwell at midfield and dribbled it inside the Clark penalty area, where his shot bounced off keeper Peter Wise's (Providence, R.I.) hands and into the back of the net.

Both teams were even in shots (6) and saves (4), but MIT had the edge on corner kicks, 4-1, heading into the intermission.

The Cougars finally broke through at the 69:04 mark when Doenmez sent a free kick into the box. Senior Mike Trobagis (Acton, Mass.) converted the pass with a diving header into the far corner to trail by one (1-2). It was his fourth goal of the year.

Clark played the last 10 minutes of the game a man-down after defender Preben Gietz (Waterloo, Belgium) was handed his second yellow card of the day, but the Cougars continued to turn up the pressure searching for the equalizer.

The host team had three legitimate changes in the final five minutes of the game, but each attempt was snuffed out by Caldwell. Adrian Blackadar's (Warwick, R.I.) backwards header at 86:32 and back-to-back shots by Trobagis and Doenmez were stopped point blank by Caldwell to preserve the victory.

For the game, Clark outshot MIT, 15-9, but were edged on corner kicks, 5-4.

Wise finished with four saves for Clark. Caldwell stopped nine shots for MIT.

Clark will travel to Fitchburg State College on Wednesday. MIT will play at WPI next Saturday (5:30 p.m.).