M. Soccer Booted by Rutgers

STORRS, Conn.—When Coach John Kerr and the seniors of the Harvard men’s soccer team came out of Connecticut’s Morrone Stadium following their 1-0 loss to Rutgers on Friday, their hopes of advancing deep into the NCAA Tournament were dashed. But their pride in having led Harvard to its first tournament appearance in five years was still strong.

“It was just an unbelievable season overall,” said co-captain Nick Lenicheck. “Last year we were last place in the Ivies, we lost our last six games of the season. To come out of that, and go 5-2 in the Ivies, then make the tournament and give Rutgers a really great game. I think if a couple of bounces went our way we could have won it.”

The game had remained scoreless until the 81st minute, when Big East Player of the Year Dennis Ludwig netted the game-winner for Rutgers. The No. 16 Scarlet Knights (14-6-3) advanced to the second round of NCAAs to face No. 9 Connecticut yesterday, while No. 20 Harvard (10-5-1) was left looking ahead to next season.

“We’ve come a long way in a few years and the future looks bright,” Kerr said. “I’m sorry for the seniors—they had a great season. But I’m very happy the way things are going.”

The victory capped a highly successful fall season for Harvard Athletics.

While national attention was focused on the football team’s first undefeated season since 1968, the men’s soccer team made history of its own during the regular season by matching a school record of six consecutive shutouts that was set in 1969. Only three times before in school history had both Harvard soccer teams made NCAAs. The women’s soccer team had beaten Hartford in quadruple overtime in its first-round NCAA game at Storrs on Nov. 15 before falling to UConn on Nov. 17.

With Kerr losing just four of the 29 players from Friday’s roster to graduation, he is optimistic that a Harvard NCAA berth will be an annual occurrence.

“The experience [the underclassmen] got tonight is going to take them a long way, and I think they want more of it,” Kerr said.

BF:Rutgers 1, Harvard 0

The Crimson kept the First Team All-Big East duo of Ludwig and sophomore Sherif El Bialy out of the net for the first 80 minutes, but the two came through for Rutgers in the end.

Rutgers senior midfielder Dustin Sheppard iniated the game winning attack. After controlling a Knight throw-in deep in Harvard territory, he served the ball to El Bialy wide of the right post. El Bialy sent the ball across the goal line but out of any Harvard player’s reach. Ludwig, who had been rushing towards the goal, one-timed the ball softly into the left corner of the net as senior goalkeeper Dan Mejias was on the right post.

Harvard kept the pressure on in the final five minutes in its last-ditch effort to tie the game.

The Crimson earned a corner kick with 44 seconds left, and sophomore Spencer George—a late substitution—placed the ball well towards the far post, but Rutgers junior goalkeeper Ricky Zinter won the battle in the air. The Scarlet Knights cleared the ball twice in the final seconds to end any hope of a Harvard comeback.

The Crimson played a more defensive game from the outset. Harvard kept Rutgers from getting scoring chances in the first half, but the Crimson itself was rarely able to connect with its forwards.

“We had a game plan going in the first half—we were low pressure,” Kerr said. “We tried to hit them on the counterattack. We had one or two opportunities but we didn’t really fully take advantage of those.”

Harvard’s early strategy was immediately evident when the Crimson played the ball deep into its own end off the opening kickoff. The play went awry when El Bialy stole the ball and set up Ludwig in front of the net. Ludwig could only deflect the ball softly off his body right at Mejias.

After that initial lapse, neither team could manage a shot on goal for the rest of the half.

Also contributing to Harvard’s offensive struggles was the absence of sophomore midfielder Kevin Ara—the team’s second-leading scorer—who had to miss the game due to the number of yellow cards he had accumulated throughout the season. Freshman forward Jeremy Truntzer was also missing due to a concussion from last week.

In the second half, the Crimson decided to step up the offensive pressure.

“We changed our tactics a little bit, and I think people also calmed down and we tried to pressure them some more,” Lenicheck said. “I think that paid off, because we thought they might be a little bit shaky in the back and we did get some chances because of that. We stepped up our game but it just wasn’t enough.”

Some of Harvard’s best chances came around the 70th minute. On one opportunity, junior back Joe Steffa crossed the ball to junior forward Charles Morrow who headed the ball to Zinter for Harvard’s only shot on goal all evening. Shortly after, junior Michael Cornish patiently passed back to junior back Joe Steffa, who set up junior midfielder Marc Buan in front of the net with a fairly clear shot, but the ball sailed over the net.

“We changed tactics at halftime and decided to go for it and stepped it up, and we were fortunate to have some opportunities to score, and we had some clean shots at goal but unfortunately they weren’t on target,” Kerr said. “You have to make the most of opportunities in games like this.”

As Harvard stepped up the offensive pressure, Rutgers started to get more chances of its own. The change of tempo meant that Mejias was forced to make four crucial saves in the second half just to keep the Crimson in the game.

One of the Knight’s best scoring chances of the evening came in the 65th minute, when Rutgers freshman midfielder Anthony Schiavino fired a hard shot from the 18 that bent to the right of Mejias who was able to punch it out to keep the game tied.

Shortly after, Mejias made another punch save, and Schiavnio got the rebound, but his shot was blocked by the Harvard defenders. Sheppard sent that rebound over the net.

Mejias’ saves kept Harvard in the game at that point, but because the Crimson could not capitalize on its opportunities five minutes later, it went for naught.

BF:Ivy Honors

The All-Ivy teams were announced early last week, and six Crimson players received honors. Sophomore Ladd Fritz and junior back Mike Lobach led the way as Harvard’s two First Team selections.

Fritz was Harvard’s top returning scorer going into the season, and he did not disappoint. He led the team in scoring with six goals, including Harvard’s first score of the season against Yale, and the game-winners in Harvard’s 1-0 victories over Columbia and Ivy co-champion Princeton.

Lobach has been a steady presence in the backfield for Harvard, starting all but two games in his three years with the Crimson. He was a Second Team All-Ivy player in both his freshman and sophomore years.

Ara and Peller were Harvard’s two Second Team All-Ivy selections. Ara tied with Fritz as the team’s leading overall scorer with five goals and three assists for the season. He netted the game-winning penalty kick in Harvard’s 1-0 victory over Penn and added two assists in Harvard’s season-opening 4-2 victory over Yale.

Peller scored the game-tying goal in Harvard’s 2-1 upset of then-No. 6 San Diego in September, and the game-winner in Harvard’s 1-0 win over Cornell.

Junior back Joe Steffa and sophomore back Andrew Old each earned Honorable Mention honors.