Men’s Soccer Takes No. 23 Cornell to the Wire in 1-0 Loss

Saturday, November 8

New York, N.Y.

5:00 p.m.

Columbia University

3-8-4, 1-5-1

Cornell

12-2-2, 5-1-1

Cornell

Columbia

The Columbia Men's Soccer Senior Class of 2026

Men’s Soccer Takes No. 23 Cornell to the Wire in 1-0 Loss

11/8/2025 7:43:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score Box Score Match Book

Lions conclude 2025 campaign

NEW YORK — The Columbia men's soccer team was defeated by No. 23 Cornell, 1-0, Saturday evening at Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium.

Prior to the start of the match, Columbia celebrated the careers of its nine seniors. The class consists of Dean Kelliher, Carmine Falco, Alessandro Franciosa, Ryan Yang, Brandon Newman, Christoph Kuttner, Joao Lima, Cy Sokolowski and Jesse Greissman. Eight of the nine seniors are four-year members of the program – Kuttner is a three-year member who transferred in from Radford as a sophomore in 2023.

With the result, Columbia concludes the 2025 season with an overall record of 3-8-4, going 1-5-1 in Ivy League play. Meanwhile, Cornell (12-2-2, 5-1-1 Ivy) will head to next week's Ivy League Tournament as the No. 2 seed.

Despite missing out on the postseason, Columbia made tremendous strides on the attack in 2025. In its third season under head coach Michael Casper, the Lions scored 18 goals, doubling their output from a year ago. It's the team's most goals in a season since scoring 23 in 2019. Columbia also has much to look forward to next season, in line to return 14 of those 18 goals.

As for Saturday night, Cornell broke through to open the scoring just under the half-hour mark. Aidan Martin got into some space outside the left half of the penalty area. He sent in a cross that Sergio Zapata collected in the box. Zapata tried to turn and fire a shot, but it was deflected. Unfortunately for the Lions, it deflected right on through to Blake Donahue, who chipped the keeper in close.

Despite going down a goal, Columbia held its own against the nation's 23rd-ranked team. The Lions had the clear advantage in possession throughout the second half. Cornell still ended the contest with a 13-9 advantage in shots. Columbia keeper Alexander O'Brien made four saves.

O'Brien's biggest save of the night came in the 72nd minute. With the Lions taking chances up top to try and level the score, Cornell took off on the counter. Donahue was played through, chasing the ball down between Joe McDaid and Connor Owen. McDaid made a brilliant play, tackling the ball away just before Donahue met it at the top of the 18. The ball dribbled out to Adam Schaban in space, who drove a low, hard, curling, left-footed shot that O'Brien saved, fully extending on a dive to his right.

That kept it a one-goal game and kept the result in doubt. The Lions pressured and had a few looks over the final 15 minutes, but they were never able to equalize.

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