Late Cornell Tally Stuns Harvard

The momentum had swung back to the side of the Crimson. After a furious second-half rally, Harvard appeared to be on the verge of forcing overtime.

But the Big Red had other ideas.

Kuda Wekwete scored for Cornell (3-4-2, 2-0-0 Ivy) with 37 seconds left in the game to lead the Big Red over the Crimson 3-2 Saturday night in Ithaca. For Harvard, it was the third straight defeat after winning the previous three in a row and dropped the squad to 4-4-1, 0-2-0 on the season.

“In the past, we have had trouble coming from [behind],” Craig said. “This makes us proud.”

The Crimson rallied from an early 2-0 deficit, tying the game on junior forward Charles Altchek’s header off of senior defender Brian Charnock’s corner kick in the 57th minute.

“Brian put it in the right spot,” Altchek said. “I did what I had to do.”

Senior midfielder Nicholas Tornaritis scored Harvard’s first goal of the game in the 49th minute after taking a pass from freshman defender Marcel Perl. That goal, four minutes into the second half, was just what the Crimson needed after a disappointing first half of play.

“We had some good chances in the first half,” said senior captain and defender Will Craig. “We didn’t feel we were being outplayed. [Tornaritis’s] goal early on got us going.”

After Altchek’s goal brought the team even, the Crimson was even more fired up to get the goal needed to win it.

“The whole team was pumped up,” Altchek said. “We were all expecting that third goal to come.”

Unfortunately for Harvard, it would be Cornell that grabbed the game-winning third goal, as Wekwete was able to score unassisted on a counterattack in the game’s final moments.

The Crimson fell despite outshooting the Big Red 23-14 for the game, including doubling up on the host in shots in the second half, with 10 to Cornell’s five. Harvard also had twice as many corner kicks after halftime, 4-2. But when it came to the statistic that mattered most, the Crimson came up short.

“We didn’t wilt, we didn’t give up,” Altchek said. “We definitely learned from our game on Tuesday [a 4-3 overtime loss to URI].”

The Crimson also played well in the first half, but it did not appear that way on the scoreboard, as it went into the second half trailing by two.

The Big Red came out fast, scoring twice in the first 18 minutes. Cornell’s first goal came by way of a penalty kick after a controversial call. The Big Red Scored again in the 18th minute off a corner kick helped out by a breakdown in the Harvard defense.

The Crimson hopes to stop its three-game skid today in a non-league game against Boston University.

Harvard will have freshman forward John Stamatis back for that game. Stamatis scored twice in the loss Tuesday, but was suspended for the Cornell match because of a red card.