NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale's defense held the dangerous Ghidini Begliardi, UMass's leading scorer, in check for the first 85 minutes of Tuesday's non-league match at Reese Stadium. Begliardi, though, capitalized on one of his few opportunities in the 87
th minute to score the only goal of the game as the Minutemen knocked off the Bulldogs in a battle of two of New England's top programs.
Logan Brown got the game-winning play started with a long, forward ball. Begliardi took it from there, dribbling toward goal, making a quick move and firing a shot inside the far post at 86:22. It was his team-leading sixth goal of the season.
Yale had a good chance to tie off a corner kick a little over a minute later, but
Enzo Okpoye's header went just over the cross bar.
The loss snapped Yale's 10-game home winning streak. The Bulldogs last loss at Reese came to Columbia on Oct. 27, 2018.
UMass (7-2-1) improved to 5-0 on the road this season with the victory.
The Minutemen, who have won three straight games, finished No. 31 in the final RPI and played in the NCAA Tournament last spring.
The Bulldogs (3-4) now turn their attention to Saturday's Ivy League opener vs. Harvard. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. following the Yale-Harvard women's game, which is a 4 p.m. start.
"This was a battle tonight and I give a lot of credit to UMass for the level of intensity and physicality they brought," said
Kylie Stannard, the 5K Corral Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "It's a good precursor to what we will see with Ivy games so we need to learn from this very quickly and be ready to bounce back."
