NEW YORK — Senior Matthew Swain scored an 84th-minute winner to lift the Columbia men's soccer team over Fordham, 1-0, on a damp and misty Tuesday night at Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium.
 
Columbia (4-5-4) struck on the counter to walk away with the victory. The Lions cleared a free kick sent into their own box and immediately played it through the midfield and down to a sprinting Beto Carrillo along the near side. Carrillo played the ball off to Danny Laranetto near the six-yard box, who sent it right back to Carrillo before it made its way across the box to Matthew Swain in space. Swain settled and fired his shot at goal from inside 15 yards, which took a friendly deflection off a Fordham defender before rolling into the left side of goal.
 
"Beto kept his composure … found me with a little no-look pass and even though it wasn't the best finish it went in," said Swain, whose goal was his second of the season and third of his career. "We just came from a game against Dartmouth where we finished 0-0. We weren't able to get the goal even though we had a lot of shots on target. This one looked like it might go the same way … We felt like we had to capitalize on a chance. We kept a clean sheet, which is the most important thing, and then just one of those chances has to be finished. That's what happened today."
 
Columbia kept its second consecutive clean sheet for the first time all season. A desperation save off the line by first-year defender Keenan Foley in the sixth minute helped to preserve it. Goalkeeper Michael Collodi only needed to make one save himself despite the Rams taking 12 shots over the 90 minutes. The shutout was Collodi's third of the season.
 
The Lions took 10 shots on the night, five of which were on target. What appeared to be an early goal off the back of sophomore Vitto Luzio was waved off by referee Patrick Violette. Columbia really began to apply the pressure in the second half, when two shots by Uri Zeitz and another by John Denis all had to be saved over a seven-minute span.
 
Fordham's best look at goal in the latter half came 65 minutes in when Kristian Shkreli hit the woodwork on a shot from distance.
 
Just when the match seemed destined for overtime, Columbia struck on the counter and Swain provided the winner to give the Lions some momentum heading into Saturday's clash with Yale.
 
"Having two clean sheets in a row is really good going into Yale," the New York native added. "It's the biggest game of our season. I think it's coming at the right time."
 
The Lions and Bulldogs kick off from Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium on Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
For the latest on the Columbia men's soccer program, follow @ColumbiaMSoccer on Twitter and Instagram, on Facebook at Facebook.com/ColumbiaMensSoccer and on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.