The Quinnipiac Bobcats reached the .500 mark with a 2-0 win against Yale Bulldogs Wednesday, dealing the local rivals their first loss of the young season.
Goalkeeper Chrysostomos Iakovidis and the Bobcats (3-3) exorcised their Bulldog (1-1-1) demons today, with an offensive spark provided by freshman Eamon Whelan. Yale had been a lingering challenge to the Bobcats in recent memory, holding Quinnipiac to just two wins in their last 14 meetings.
After sharing relatively equal minutes with Brian Westerman for the first five games of the season, Iakovidis played the full ninety minutes earlier today and earned the shutout, further supporting his claim to the role.
Whelan was a one man show on the offensive side of the ball, netting both goals for the Bobcats, who came out the gates with aggression following their 2-1 loss to UMass-Lowell.
Quinnipiac kept its foot on the gas pedal and had multiple solid scoring chances off corner kicks. Defensively, the Bobcats used solid defense on Yale’s set pieces, with aggressive play from Iakovidis, who came out of the net on multiple free and corner kicks to intercept Yale’s scoring chances.
The Bobcat’s intense offensive pressure was rewarded with 17 minutes to go in the first half, when a scoring chance led to a vacated Yale net, which Whelan took advantage of with a header in the back of the net for his third goal of the season.
Yale’s best scoring chance came early in the first half, when Iakovidis came out of net to eliminate a scoring chance, but was unable to secure the ball. The rebound came to Yale, but their shot at the open net was deflected out of harm’s way by Bobcats defender Connor McCoy.
Quinnipiac kept the pressure on to open the second half, carrying its offensive activity over from their last game, when they recorded a season high nine shots on goal. The Bobcats had an answer for every one of Yale’s chances, consistently turning defense into offense, particularly in the 70th minute when a solid clear by the Bobcats came to Ryan Schiederman, who threaded a nifty pass to Whelan, who punched it home for his second goal of the contest.
A corner kick from Yale in the 75th minute was once again aggressively intercepted by Iakovidis, and would be the last Bulldogs threat.
With the win, the Bobcats end their three game home stand on a high note, and travel to Holy Cross for their next game on Saturday.
