Eagles Soar Above Slumping W. Booters With 3-1 Triumph

CHESTNUT HILL--The soccer wasn't pretty, and, for the Harvard women's soccer team, the result wasn't either.

Harvard lost to Boston College (4-4-0) yesterday, 3-1, dropping the Crimson to 2-2-1 overall, 1-1-0 Ivy.

While the game was closer than the score indicated, neither team was happy with the way they played.

"It was not a stellar day for us," forward Jen Minkus said.

"We were not reacting to each other on the field," junior midfielder Sharon Olken said. "We just weren't connecting."

"If we had played like this against [second-ranked] Connecticut, we would have been killed," Eagles Coach Terez Bonorden said.

Although the quality of soccer may not have been top-rate, the game was still exciting.

Crimson goalie Brooke Donahoe and Eagles goalie Patricia Cook each had rally-killing saves in the first half.

Eagles star middie Michelle Howland, who scored twice in the game, broke the scoring drought with a header past Donahoe 34 minutes into the game, putting B.C. up 1-0.

But Harvard stepped up its game a notch and knotted the score just seven minutes later.

Junior forward Laurie Uustal passed the ball across the net to Co-Captain Robin Johnston, who ripped the ball past Cook for the score.

The goal was the Crimson's first in 132 minutes of play, a streak extending back to the closing moments of the Columbia game two weeks ago.

In the second half, neither team could mount a consistent offensive attack.

The Eagles scored the winning goal with 15 minutes left to play when speedy B.C. forward Claire Feeney collided with Donahoe near the top of the box on a breakaway.

Donahoe, unable to extricate herself from Feeney's grasp, could only watch as Howland punched the ball into the vacant net.

Feeney went the distance soon after, outracing the Crimson defense down the length of the field and scoring on a helpless Donahoe.

The two breakaway goals illustrate the difficulty the Crimson defense has had in stopping agile forwards all season.

"We were a little frantic, I think," freshman middie Genevieve Chelius said. "When we settled down, we started to play a lot better."

"It's our transition game," Olken said. "We don't make the switch from offense to defense quickly enough."

Olken herself was a terror on the field, playing ferocious offense and defense in her 50 minutes of play.

Minkus also made her presence felt during her time on the field. In the first half, she was robbed of three potential goals on sensational saves by Cook.

"Their goalie played well," Minkus said. "But we need to be more focused."

The Crimson offense, led by Minkus, Johnston and Uustal, has been troubled by poor shot selection in the past, often failing to challenge the opposing goalie.

Against B.C., the team showed a statistical improvement in this area, recording 20 shots on goal and forcing Cook to make 13 saves.

Minkus, however, did not see any difference.

"We have to take more quality shots," she said. "Quantity is not the most important thing.

"We have to put the ball in the corner of the net, not the trees."

In comparison, B.C. shot 21 times on goal, but Donahoe was only forced to make nine saves.

Many of those saves were at point-blank range, as the Eagles penetrated the Crimson goal box with relative ease at times.

Feeney turned in a solid showing for the Eagles with five shots and a goal. The freshman middie was also largely responsible for the second goal of the game with her second-half slide-tackle of Donahoe.

Moreover, Feeney's lightning-quick breakaways prevented the Crimson defense from bringing its firepower to bear in the closing minutes of the game.