NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale deserved better in its season opener against Fairleigh Dickinson. In fact, the Bulldogs deserved much better. Yale outshot the Knights 21-8, had a big edge in possession time and had eight of the game’s nine corner kicks but suffered a 2-0 loss on a gorgeous late summer afternoon at Reese Stadium.

Ahu Obhakhan scored both goals for FDU, including one with seven seconds left with Yale in all out pressure mode which made the final score remarkably deceiving.

“It’s been a long time since Yale men’s soccer has dominated a game like that, but the crazy thing about this sport, unlike any other sport, is that you can dominate in basically every category and still lose,” said Kylie Stannard, The 5K Corral Head Coach of the Bulldogs. “This was a head shaker.  In the end, there is only one stat or category that matters, and I give a lot of credit to FDU for getting it done in the most important category.  FDU is a good team and their coach was incredibly complimentary of our performance.  They know they stole that game from us, but that’s also what good teams find a way to do.”

Yale came close to scoring numerous times, including a Nicky Downs’ blast from 20 yards out that banged off the crossbar midway through the first half.

The game was scoreless until early in the second half when the Knights capitalized on one of their few dangerous opportunities. Obhakhan got behind the defense and controlled a forward ball. Yale goalkeeper Kees Schipper came out to stop his first shot, but the rebound deflected past Schipper and Objakhan, who had kept going forward, corralled it and banged it in at 58:14.

From there, the Bulldogs really turned on the heat, but FDU goalkeeper Tiago Capela was outstanding. In one sequence, he stopped three shots in succession, robbing Downs, Ryan Matteo and Andrew Carton on shots that all appeared to be headed into the net.

Obhakhan then sealed the win when he scored on a breakaway at 89:53.

“We are very optimistic about the performance as a whole but we are absolutely not satisfied,” Stannard said. “We can’t allow the first goal to happen but we also need to punch one in the back of the net to take some pressure off our team.  We certainly created enough chances to score multiple goals tonight.  That’s a huge positive.  Their goalkeeper stood on his head and had ball magnets on his hands because he was sensational tonight.”

The Bulldogs won’t have to wait long to get back in action. They host Howard on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Reese.

“We know that if we continue to play like we did tonight, we are going to win a lot of games this year,” Stannard said. “Right now, we will do a quick review of this game but then turn our attention quickly to a very difficult game on Sunday vs. Howard.”

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