On a rainy Saturday afternoon, the men’s soccer team (2-4-1, 1-0-0 Ivy) came into their home match against Columbia (2-3-2, 0-1-0 Ivy) looking for their first win since Sept. 1. They delivered, handing the Lions a 4-0 rout to open their Ivy League schedule.
The result marked Head Coach Chase Wileman’s first win in Ivy play after losing or tying every match against Ivy League opponents last season.
“I'm really happy for our team. Some results haven't gone our way but I don't think that we've been playing bad,” Wileman said. “Full credit goes to them — and this is the happiest, the proudest that I've been as their coach.”
The Bears dominated the match, outshooting Columbia 16-6 total and 5-1 in shots on goal and managed their first clean sheet of the season. Kojo Dadzie ’24 scored twice, with Charlie Adams ’24 and Carlo Brown ’27 each adding a goal to give the Bears the victory.
“Earlier in the season, we made too many individual errors,” said defender and captain Taha Kina ’24. “And I think tonight we really worked hard as a team to all be on the same wavelength, and that showed with our first clean sheet.”
Aside from an opening shot and a corner by the Lions, Columbia never established a presence in the match and their offense went stagnant after only the ninth minute of play.
Scoring opened with a well-executed team goal beginning and ending with Dadzie. The Bears made a short run down the field and after a shot by Lorenzo Amaral ’27 was blocked, Carlo Brown recovered the ball and passed it to Dadzie, who nestled his shot in the top left corner to give the Bears the lead.
“Obviously, (I was) just trying to create a motion (and) to get into dangerous areas and I saw Carlo with the ball on the left, so I just kind of popped out,” Dadzie said. “I thought about going to my right to get a shot off on target. Honestly, I thought I missed. I was looking around like, what's going on? And then I hear Carlo screaming.”
That team effort resulted in the only goal during the first half by either team.
After dictating the first half mostly with their defensive play, the Bears’ offense finally clicked into place in the second.
In the 49th minute, Greyson Mitchell ’26 placed a long throw directly into the box. After a touch by Langdon Gryglas ’26 and a brief stretch of chaotic play, the ball landed for a right-footed strike by Dadzie to extend the Bears' lead to 2-0.
“He's being very dangerous and very direct,” Wileman said of Dadzie, who leads Brown in goals this season.
Dadzie’s brace is his second this season, with the last one coming in the team’s season-opening win over the University of Massachusetts.
Later in the match, a spell of great passes by Levi Pillar ’24 and Tanner Barry ’25 and a dancing effort by Adams notched the Bears another goal. With the score at 3-0 in the 64th minute, Brown effectively put the game out of reach, offering a reminder that the Bears “have other guys as well that can also be dangerous,” according to Wileman.
Not long after Carlo Brown’s 83rd-minute header — his first collegiate goal — the final whistle was blown, sealing a 4-0 victory for the Bears.
The Bears look forward to continuing this momentum into the rest of the season, Wileman and multiple players told The Herald.
“I think as the results have shown, we've been close,” Kina said, referring to the Bears’ multiple close losses this season. “And we faced a lot of adversity early in the season. So it's really great to get a result on the first night of Ivy League play.”
The Bears now look ahead to a Saturday matchup against Cornell (3-2-1, 0-0-1 Ivy), who are coming off a draw with Harvard to open their Ivy slate.
“Every Ivy League game is a battle, and tonight we were up for it,” Kina said. “So we just have to continue to be ready (and) continue to train hard with the right habits, and I think we can do something special this season.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly suggested that the men's soccer team lost every game against Ivy League opponents in 2022, omitting the team's three draws. The Herald regrets the error.
Dennis Carey is a Sports Editor who enjoys playing volleyball, listening to and collecting vinyl records, and poorly playing the guitar in his spare time.
