Despite stingy defensive effort, Merrimack falls to top-ranked Dartmouth

Dartmouth 1, Merrimack 0

HANOVER, N.H. — The Warriors did just about everything right defensively on Saturday afternoon at Thompson Arena, holding Dartmouth’s high-octane offense to its lowest goal output and second-fewest shot total of the season. But the Big Green, as stingy as they’ve been explosive this year, needed only a single strike from C.J. Foley to secure a 1-0 shutout win.

“There isn’t much I can really complain about when it comes to our game,” Merrimack coach Scott Borek said. “[Dartmouth] is playing with a lot of confidence right now, they’re hard to play against, and they played really well. Unfortunately, we gave up that goal, but I’m not unhappy with how we played.”

Dartmouth improved to 8-0 and remained the No. 1 team in the NCAA’s NPI rankings, the new formula the NCAA will use to select and seed the national tournament field.