M. Soccer Awaits NCAA Selection Decision

The Brown men’s soccer team came to Cambridge on Saturday to play Harvard in one of the Crimson’s most crucial matches in recent years. In front of a partisan Brown crowd at Ohiri Field, the Bears (7-7-2, 5-1-1 Ivy) rattled off three goals and headed home with an Ivy League co-championship.

The 3-0 loss ended Harvard’s chance for its first outright Ivy title since 1996, and leaves the Crimson ( 10-4-1, 5-2 Ivy) “on the bubble” for one of the NCAA Tournament bids that will be handed out today. Princeton, the other co-champ in the Ivy League, receives the automatic bid on the strength of a head-to-head win this season over Brown. Either a tie or a win would have clinched an automatic bid for the Crimson in addition to the League title

““We had a great season. It’s just disapointing to lose the final game in the fashion that we did especially with so much at stake,” Harvard Coach John Kerr. “Hopefully we’ll get a chance to get into the NCAA playoffs and give ourselves a chance to redeem ourselves.”

The Bears took a 1-0 lead less than seven minutes into the game, when sophomore midfielder Derek Woodard volleyed a shot by Crimson keeper Dan Mejias from 10 yards out. The ball bounced right to Woodard after a Bears free kick was deflected into the box by a Crimson defender.

Brown’s offensive pressure translated into a second goal for the Bears in the 19th minute. A bouncing ball deflected off the Crimson right goalpost and was passed out to freshman defender Jeff Larentowiz, who buried a 15-yard shot by Mejias. Junior forward Eduardo Romaneiro picked up the assist on the play.

At the 21:59 marks, it looked like Harvard had cut the lead to one when sophomore forward Grayson Sugarman received a ball near the far post and slotted it past Brown freshman keeper David Mahoney. Brown dodged a bullet when the referee called the goal back because of a hand-ball foul on the Crimson.

Brown frustrated Harvard early with a string of fouls in the midfield area. Harvard struggled to develop a rhythm offensively and resorted to sending long balls in to the Brown defensive end.

Harvard’s second serious scoring threat came in the first half when some nice passing up front by sophomore forward Ladd Fritz and junior forward Charles Morrow led to a one-on-one showdown between Morrow and the Brown keeper. Mahoney cut down the angle and made a big save on Morrow’s shot to keep Brown up 2-0. Morrow had come in to replace Sugarman up front when Sugarman went down with an injury.

Brown put the game away early in the second half when some good passing through the midfield sent Romaneiro in on a break against Mejias. The Crimson defenders were waiting for an offsides call that never came, and Romaneiro scored to give his team a 3-0 lead. Junior midfielder Evan Ryan and sophomore defender Matt Goldman picked up assists on the goal.

Brown defenders continued to suffocate the Crimson offense for the rest of the game as the Bears preserved the shutout for Mahoney, his second in a row in Ivy action.

“It’s a tough loss to take. Now all we can do is wait and see what happens. Hopefully we can get into the tournament make a solid run, “ said freshman defender Jason Anderson.

“We gave them free kicks in our defensive zone and they took advantage of that,” Kerr said. “They bullied us all over the field. They came to play... We were just hoping to finesse them too much. Sometimes you have to show up and win the battle before you can win the war.”

The Crimson’s frustration translated into four yellow cards in addition to several warnings from the referree.

Harvard will hope that its strong showings against top-ranked teams, including a 2-1 win over No.6 San Diego and a 0-0 with Fairfield, the top team in the region, will help persuade the election committee to give the Crimson a bid. The team will meet tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. in Adams House to watch the selection show.