M. Soccer Wins On Late Goal

The Harvard men’s soccer team continued it’s late-game heroics last night, scoring three second-half goals to defeat Maine, 3-2, in Falmouth, Maine.

It was the second-straight come-from-behind victory for the Crimson (4-1), who defeated Hartford Saturday after trailing 3-0 at halftime.

Continuing a season-long trend, Harvard struggled in the first half. The Black Bears (1-4-2) dominated play, holding the Crimson to only four shots and keeping tight control of the ball in taking a 2-0 lead at intermission.

For the second straight contest, the Crimson was looking at a loss in a winnable game, prompting Harvard Coach John Kerr to replace freshman goalie Ryan Johnson with sophomore Jamie Roth.

But like its last game against Hartford, Harvard took control in the second half to salvage the win.

The first strike came at the seventy-minute mark on a penalty kick by junior center-midfielder Kevin Ara, following a foul to senior Jeremy Truntzer racing down the rights side of the penalty box.

Eight minutes later, Harvard tied the game on a laser by junior forward Ladd Fritz. A botched Maine clear left the ball in Fritz’s possession. The junior took two quick dribbles before sending the ball just past Maine goalie Josh Sjostrom and into the lower-left hand corner.

With all the momentum and another come-from-behind victory in sight, Harvard just needed one more clutch play to steal the win. This time, it would be Ara, capitalied on a free kick opportunity to score his second goal of the game and give the Crimson dramatic win.

The Crimson earned the free kick thirty yards from the Black Bear goal at the 83 minute mark. Taking the kick, Ara noticed that Sjostrom was cheating off his line.

“I figured if I took a shot, maybe I’d give him some trouble,” Ara said.

Ara’s shot sailed past the Maine keeper, and the Crimson defense continued its second-half dominance, preventing the Black Bears from seriously threatening in sealing the victory.

The competition gets much tougher this weekend, as Harvard opens its Ivy League schedule Saturday afternoon at Brown, last year’s league co-champion. Ara said the team will need to play much better if it expects to knock off the Bears.

“If we play like we did in the second-half, we’ll be fine,” Ara said. “But we need to come to play in the first half as well.”