Rhythm Disrupted by Snow

For the Harvard men’s soccer team, Saturday’s weather only added to the worries.

The temperature outside was cold, but this Crimson team is used to the chilly weather in the Northeast. But when it started to snow on Saturday, both Harvard (4-7-2, 0-4-1 Ivy) and Dartmouth (9-2-4, 4-1-0) became a little fazed.

When the game started at two in the afternoon, the snow had not yet started to fall, making the first half of play considerably easier.

“[In the first half] we were able to pass the ball and defend properly,” said defender and captain Will Craig.

But as the second half began the snow began to fall heavily, blanketing the field. The snow not only obscured Harvard’s view, but also made it difficult to keep control of the ball.

“People were slipping everywhere,” Craig said. “It was difficult to get ahold of the ball with all the snow and ice.”

Because of the extreme weather conditions, the Crimson was forced to play a much more calculated and controlled game than it is used to. Harvard was unable to make the long passes up the field that are a key part of its attack.

Instead, the Crimson had to make sure every ball was cleared well and had to be careful about getting the ball out of the back field in order to protect the net.

ON THE FRITZ

After starting out the season strong with four wins in its first six games, the Crimson’s season has not progressed as well as the squad would have liked.

With the loss to Dartmouth, Harvard remains winless in its last seven games, with six losses and only one tie—to Princeton. The Big Green, on the other hand, is sitting in second in the league.

“I think the boys certainly do feel as if we are having a bad run of luck,” Craig said. ”We’ve played a lot of close games in these past seven, and for small reasons we lose these close ones.”

Three of its losses—against Cornell, Rhode Island, and then the Big Green on Saturday—all ended with a goal in the last minutes of play by the opposing team to clinch the win. In its tie with the Tigers, Harvard also surrendered the tying goal in the last minutes of play.

With its run of bad luck, the Crimson has dropped to 4-7-2 overall and is winless in the Ivy League.

Harvard is now going to have to focus on being able to close out its games strong so it doesn’t suffer any more devastating losses in the next three games.

“If every player can step off the field and look themselves in the mirror and know they’ve done everything they could to win the game,” Craig said, “we’ll do just fine.”

MAN DOWN

It wasn’t just the poor weather that the Crimson had to overcome in its game against Dartmouth.

Harvard had to play most of the second half without star forward John Stamatis after the freshman received a second yellow card at the 42:54 mark.

Stamatis received his first card less than five minutes prior.

Both cards were dealt out by the referees for out-of-control play and persistent fouls by Stamatis.

In Stamatis’ departure, the Crimson had to play twice as hard to make up for the loss on the field of one of its key offensive players.

“The boys adjusted well playing a man down,” Craig said. “In fact we dominated our share of the play in the second half.”

But even though the remaining Harvard players were able to stay strong, they just didn’t have the offense necessary to keep Dartmouth at bay.

—Staff writer Abigail M. Baird can be reached at ambaird@fas.harvard.edu.