NEW YORK – Sebastian Gunbeyi's golden goal in overtime helped the Columbia men's soccer team top Dartmouth in a thrilling 1-0 match at Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium.
 
"They gave us an opportunity and Sebastian took it," said Columbia head coach Kevin Anderson. "Good teams find ways to win so hopefully we've learned a little bit from it and now we have to recover and get ready for Tuesday."
 
With the victory, the Lions improve to 6-4-1 overall, and pick up a crucial three points in the Ivy League standings while moving to 3-1-0 in conference play. The win also helped Dylan Castanheira become the all-time Columbia leader in shutouts, as he posted the 24th of his career today.
 
"I think the biggest thing is that we won the game today," said Castanheira. "When it comes to the shutout thing I'm really at a loss for words. Four years here, we never beat Dartmouth, finally beat them, the guys in front of me put in a heck of a shift so I'm very proud of them and to also beat the record – it has been an awesome day."
 
"Any time you have a clean sheet you have a shot to win, so a big congrats to our whole team, especially Dylan," said Anderson. "This is a phenomenal task for him, but this kid is relentless, he's hard working, and I'm really excited for him."
 
In the first half of action, the Lions had three strong looks at net. John Denis had a shot saved four minutes in, before Gunbeyi had an attempt of his own saved in the 30th minute. Just over nine minutes later, Andrew Stevens found the ball in the middle of the field and unloaded a strike from 30-yards away that nailed the crossbar, keeping the match scoreless.
 
Dartmouth's best looks in the first frame came on a wide shot by Yima Asom during the 24th minute, a header from Jonny Nierenberg almost two minutes later that went wide, and a run-out that resulted in Dawson McCartney hitting the post.
 
The Lions came out and pressured the Big Green at the start of the second half, with six shot attempts during the first 18 minutes of action. The best two looks came when Dylan Mott had a header saved by Chris Palacios of Dartmouth, before the rebound came to Kynan Rocks, who's shot was cleared just in front of the net by a Big Green defender.
 
Columbia's offensive test would be answered by Dartmouth, as the road team had four consecutive looks of its own. Castanheira came up big with saves on attempts by Kota Sakurai, Tiger Graham, and Asom, before two shots from Sakurai went wide and high of goal.
 
During the final minute of action, Columbia had once last look at a regulation game-winner, but Palacios was there to save the attempt by Rocks, as the teams would go into an extra frame.
 
The Lions would have an excellent look during a set-piece about 90 seconds into the 10-minute overtime period, but the header from Stevens was saved by Palacios. Three minutes later, the Dartmouth defense was looking to clear the ball back to Palacios, but a defender fell on a header attempt, leaving the ball loose. As Palacios began to hustle out for the loose ball, Gunbeyi's left foot beat him to the punch, while a soft touch trickled just past the end line for the score, giving Columbia its first win over the Big Green since 2013.
 
Gunbeyi's goal was the first of his career, as he entered the match with one assist on the season. With a trio of saves during the shutout victory, Castanheira drops his goals against average to 0.70, while his save percentage now sits at 0.814 in 2018.
 
Columbia is back in action at home on Tuesday, welcoming Rutgers for a 7:00 p.m. match on ESPN+.