GENEVA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's soccer team lost its first game of the season on Wednesday evening at Hobart by a 4-0 decision.
 
With the loss, the Bombers are now 6-1-3 on the season with a 0-1-2 mark in the Liberty League while Hobart sits at 4-4-2 and 3-0-1 in conference.
 
"Tonight was a good reminder of how strong the Liberty League is and how much it takes to win games," said Head Coach Kyle Dezotell. "The game was all about competing and fighting for 50/50 balls and Hobart simply did that better than we did over the 90 minutes. Hobart is a well-coached team that is always ready to compete and tonight they got the better of us."
 
After playing a scoreless first half, Hobart put its first goal up on the board in the 59^th minute. Nate Cary sent a pass into the center of the box where Ben Barnes drilled a shot into the center of the net to put the Statesmen up 1-0.
 
Less than five minutes later, Hobart added another goal to its lead to go up 2-0. Tristan Cornell Roberts blasted a pass from Pete Critchlow to the left post for his third goal of his season.
 
The Statesmen added their final goal in the 70^th minute of play. Kyle Mangold scored his first goal of the season after corralling a rebound and sending it past Max Lichtenstein in goal.
 
The Bombers were not without chances throughout the game, as they registered six shots on goal.
 
Senior Nate Mansfield put the first ball on frame in the 13^th minute, but goalkeeper Alec Kaminer came up with the save. He followed that up with two more shots which went wide and high, respectively.
 
In the 39^th minute, sophomore Ben Quatresols sent a header to goal, where Kaminer was there to make another save.
 
Lichtenstein made three saves in the first half, starting with a Nick Wigglesworth shot in the 36^th minute. He came up with another save in the 41^st minute on an Alex Weisbein attempt and ended the half by stopping a Mouhamed Diouf shot with eight seconds left.
 
Prior to Hobart scoring in the second half, Drew Cohn took the first shot for the Bombers, which sailed to the left of the goal.
 
Lichtenstein made back-to-back saves following the first two goals, first on a Weisbein header and then on a Critchlow attempt.
 
In the 75^th and 76^th minute, junior Kevin Turi tested Kaminer twice. He first attempted a header, followed by another shot but Kaminer came up with both saves.
 
The Bombers put together one last offensive push in the final 10 minutes.
 
Justinian Michaels and Jon Kyriakidis put back-to-back shots on frame in the 82^nd minute, but Kaminer saved both to keep a clean sheet.
 
Statistically, Hobart narrowly outshot the Bombers 15-10 while registering one more corner than IC.
 
Lichtenstein finished with five saves while Kaminer notched six for the Statesmen.
 
"While it's disappointing and we know we need to be much better, we're in a great spot and we'll use this to learn from," said Dezotell. "We just lost our first game of the year on October 3 at the home of the defending champs. It's an amazing start to the season and we look forward to getting back to work tomorrow to get ready for Bard."
 
Ithaca is back in action on Saturday with a road game at Bard, starting at 2 p.m. The game against the Raptors marks the final game in a three-game stretch of road games. The Bombers are home again on Tuesday, October 9 at 4 p.m. against Alfred at Higgins Stadium.