W. Soccer Annihilates Terriers

In its strongest offensive effort of the season, the No. 10 Harvard women’s soccer team exploded for five goals to surge past Boston University (BU) 5-1 at Ohiri Field yesterday afternoon.

With the victory over the regionally-ranked Terriers (8-5-1), the Crimson (8-1, 3-0 Ivy) stretched its winning streak to eight games.

“I am very pleased,” said Harvard Coach Tim Wheaton. “This is a game that has always been a battle for us. Fortunately, we were able to get some goals early and that changed the nature of the game.”

Harvard, which outshot the Terriers 22-8 for the game, lit up the scoreboard just three minutes into the game.

Sophomore midfielder Katie Westfall passed the ball through the BU defense to junior forward Beth Totman. On the breakaway, Totman lined the ball past the diving BU goalkeeper Jessica Clinton to give the Crimson an early 1-0 lead.

“Playing in the middle of the week, just coming from classes, sometimes it can be tough to get up for a game,” said captain Colleen Moore, “but the level of intensity was very high.”

Harvard scored twice more before the break to take a 3-0 halftime lead, but the game was far from over.

A rejuvenated BU team took the field in the second half, and the Terriers finally broke onto the scoreboard in the game’s 54th minute.

Junior midfielder Allison Merkle received a long cross from sophomore midfielder Rebecca Beyer and fired a shot past junior goalkeeper Cheryl Gunther to cut the lead to 3-1.

The goal was only the second allowed by Harvard since a 5-4 overtime loss to Colorado State in its season opener. The other was given up to Marquette on a penalty kick.

But the Crimson answered right back, tallying two quick goals to crush any hope of an upset.

“One [of the great things about this game] was that when they came out and scored that goal, we scored the next two,” Wheaton said.

With 27:26 remaining in the game, Fisher worked the ball down the left side of the field and sent a pass to co-captain and forward Caitlin Costello in front of the net. Costello pushed the ball past Clinton for her team-leading seventh goal of the season.

Less than a minute later, with 26:08 remaining, the Crimson’s other co-captain, the forward Moore, scored her first goal of the season. Moore received a pass from Joey Yenne, and beat Clinton on the breakaway to become the fifth Harvard player to register a goal in the game.

“Joey really just passed a great ball,” Moore said. “It was just me and the goalie. I was really just thinking ‘Don’t blow it.”

The goal was Moore’s first since tearing her ACL last season.

The goal gave the Crimson a commanding 5-1 lead with almost a third of the game remaining, allowing Harvard’s bench to see game action against a quality opponent.

“We have a lot of talented players, more than can play in a normal game,” Wheaton said. “It’s huge [that they get to play], because they are going to be asked to win games for us in the future. Everyone played today, and you couldn’t tell the difference between the starters and the reserves.”

After striking just three minutes into the game, the Terrier defense slowed Harvard for over half the period, but with 16:45 remaining in the first half, junior forward Joey Yenne scored on an pass from junior midfielder Orly Ripmaster to give Harvard a 2-0 advantage.

The Crimson stretched its lead to 3-0 several minutes later. With 7:26 to play before the break, sophomore forward Caitlin Fisher maneuvered past thee Terrier defenders before sending a pass to freshman forward Emily Colvin. Colvin passed to Ripmaster, who pushed the ball into the net for the score.

Harvard next hosts Princeton on Saturday at 12 p.m. in what could be its biggest home match of the season. Both teams enter the Ivy League showdown with perfect 3-0 conference records.