NEW YORK — The Columbia men's soccer team battled an unbeaten Villanova side to a goalless draw on Friday night at Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium. The match served as Columbia's 2025 home opener.
Senior goalkeeper
Dean Kelliher made three saves and earned his second collegiate shutout. Kelliher and Columbia's starting back line junior
Jackson ten Oever, junior
Joe McDaid and first-year
Sage Kinner played all 90 minutes.
"It's a team effort. The guys in front of me were keeping the line and doing everything they could to decrease the amount of shots on goal," the senior keeper from Chevy Chase, Maryland, said. "I'm just there to make saves and do my job and keep the clean sheet. That's what Coach Casper wants, no goals, and I felt like we did a really good job of keeping the line today … I thought our three center backs were tremendous today."
Kelliher's first big moment came in the 20th minute, stopping a shot from point-blank range before ten Oever cleared the ensuing deflection away. Four minutes later, with Villanova continuing to bring pressure, he got some help from the woodwork. Gleb Bogdanov got off a clear look from inside the 18 that slammed the crossbar.
"Villanova is a good team and they played well," Columbia head coach
Michael Casper said. "They gave us everything we could handle in the first half and I thought, as the game went on, we started to establish a little bit more of the way we wanted to play. We were able to generate some chances from there."
The Lions had the better of the opening 15-20 minutes before Villanova (2-0-2) controlled the next quarter of an hour. However, 30 minutes in, Columbia got right back in it, earning a slew of corners and getting off multiple shots that either had to be saved or blocked away. The most notable of those attempts came in the 36th minute.
Joe McDaid got a head to a corner delivered to the center of the 18. It was destined for goal but Villanova keeper Alex Yagudayev grasped it right on the goal line to keep the game level.
Each team was credited with six shots in the opening 45 minutes. The Lions had a 57-43 edge in possession and out-cornered the Wildcats, 4-2.
Twelve minutes into the second half, Columbia all but found the back of the net. Senior
Carmine Falco touched a ball to the edge of the far-right corner of the six-yard box for first-year
Stepan Kapranov. The rookie's shot was well stuck and had no chance of being saved by Yagudayev. Fortunately for the visiting side, defender Brody Crampton got back on the goal line and saved the ball himself.
The game took another shift as Villanova earned five corners over an 18-minute span. The most dangerous of those came in the 73rd minute, as Crampton got a head to a delivery but Keliher punched the shot headed for the top-left corner of goal over the bar.
The final few minutes didn't provide too much more in the way of drama.
"Villanova tests you. So, early on in the season, I'm happy to stand up to that test," Casper added. "We weren't able to put a ball in the back of the net to win tonight, but it was important to stand up to what Villanova put against us. I thought the boys fought really hard to do that."
Columbia goes back on the road to take on Fairfield (2-1-0) next Wednesday, September 10. First kick against the Stags is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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