Deja Vu All Over Again for M. Soccer

Ugh. One of those non-conference men's soccer games, again.

There's something about matching Harvard against talented schools from outside the Ivy League that brings some of the best play out of the Crimson, but there are never any results to show for it.

What can it be--bad luck? Poor officiating? The moons of Jupiter aligning with Neptune? Sometimes all three, it seems.

Tuesday, it was Maine's turn to rain on an already soggy season for Harvard; although the Black Bears controlled the play as precious few teams have against the Crimson, it took Jake Oulmet's second goal of the game--and a controversial goal at that--in the 85th minute to deal Harvard its seventh non-Ivy loss in seven tries, this time by a 2-1 score.

Odd to figure that Harvard (2-7-0, 2-1-0 Ivy) still has as solid a shot as Maine (7-2-0) does in reaching the NCAA tournament, thanks to the Ivy League winner's automatic bid. But certainly not for lack of talent and effort can Harvard control its own destiny.

"We do feel very unlucky," senior Tom Marcotullio said. "I think if you erased the last seven minutes of each game this year, our record would be a lot better."

Marcotullio can say such things from first-hand experience after what happened Tuesday. He was chasing down a searching ball lofted into the Harvard's defensive end when he was tripped up from behind by Maine's Dan Noblet, but the referee failed to blow the play dead.

And as Marcotullio fell to the turf, Noblet deftly flicked a cross to Oulmet, who one-timed his finish into an open goal past junior Crimson keeper Ned Carlson, Game, set, yet another frustrating match.

"I definitely thought I was fouled [and it led to an easy goal]," Marcotullio said. "But I guess the referee didn't see it that way."

Oulmet's other goal came in the 13th minute--how appropriate that it should come from another perfectly unlucky sequence for the Crimson. Bob Strong shanked his attempted shot from the edge of the penalty area, but Oulmet was perfectly positioned to tip the ball past Carlson at the near post.

Harvard remained resilient, however. Carlson played well, making nine saves, and the Crimson stepped up its pressure in the second half, banging a shot or two off of the woodwork behind Maine keeper Nathan Benoit.

And Harvard ultimately turned to an old friend, the set piece, for its equalizer. Sophomore Will Kohler took a direct free kick from about 25 yards and banged it straight into the Black Bear wall, but he managed to smash the rebound through the wall's remnants and into the lower right corner past Benoit.

Even then, a wave of the flag seemed to negate Kohler's fifth goal of the year.

"The linesman flagged [somebody else] for offsides, which was impossible because the goal went straight in off of a shot," Marcotullio said. "Fortunately, the referee went over to him, and they had a conference to straighten it out."

The goal that did eventually come in the 74th minute seemed to breathe life into Harvard, only for Oulmet to snuff it out 11 minutes later.

All of which may prove irrelevant given the potential for a back-door attack on the NCAA Championship by a team that still has the talent to go a long way.

"We've tried not to dwell too much on our losses--we still feel as if we have to approach one game at a time," Marcotullio said.

But with only Boston College and Hartwick left as non-conference opponents, and with three of its four remaining Ivy games at home, Harvard could be forgiven for looking past its current clutter to what could conceivably be a Cinderella postseason appearance in a sub-500 campaign.

"It's not yet a team-wide thing, but I think the Ivy League race is the key to our season," Marcotullio said. "We have a key game against Yale [on Sunday], and if we can win it, we can definitely become a contender." Harvard  1 Maine  2