NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale played one of its better defensive games of the season Saturday against Dartmouth. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, one unlucky moment was enough to doom them.

Samuel Rosen scored the only goal of the game early in the second half when he lofted a ball over Yale goalkeeper Lees Schipper’s head and into the corner of the net at 51:11.

“I thought Dartmouth's goal was very lucky and I don't even think their player tried to shoot that ball, but it happened to find its way into the back of the net,” said Kylie Stannard, the 5K Corral Head Coach of the Bulldogs. “This was a very winnable game, and we now have to find a way to put this type of defensive performance together with some of our better offensive performances.”

Yale had a couple of opportunities against a stingy Dartmouth defense but couldn’t get the equalizer.

The Bulldogs’ best chance came with 31 minutes left when Ollie Iselin rifled a shot that went just over the crossbar from 15 yards out.

Iselin had another chance in the final minutes, but Dartmouth goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland snared his header.

Cleveland, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Week, made three saves to post the shutout.

The Big Green, who has won four straight, has yielded just seven goals in its 10 games.

“I thought we took another positive step today against a good Dartmouth team,” Stannard said. “We finally defended like we have wanted to all season, and I thought we stuck with the game plan well overall which is something we have talked about. We did everything we needed to put ourselves in a position to get a result.  While we weren't sharp on the offensive side of the ball, we still created enough good chances to score goals and have to be better in those situations.”

Schipper finished with five saves for the Bulldogs.

Dartmouth had a 12-6 edge in shots, but neither team created many high-quality scoring chances.

The Bulldogs are back in action next Saturday when they host Cornell at 1 p.m.