Crimson Keeps Up Streak, Downs Crusaders, 2-1

Last night’s matchup between Harvard and Holy Cross had all the makings of the classic trap game. The Crusaders had dropped three straight contests, while the Crimson looked for its fifth straight win after a 3-0 thumping of Brown on Saturday. Even more importantly: Saturday’s Ivy showdown with undefeated Princeton looms large on Harvard’s schedule, and the team would have found three-win Holy Cross easy to overlook.

Consider the trap game bullet successfully dodged.

The Crimson (8-3-3, 3-1 Ivy) overcame a sluggish start and early one-goal deficit, putting together a sparkling second half en route to a 2-1 win over the Crusaders (3-12-0, 1-3 Patriot) in its final nonconference game last night in Worcester, Mass.

With 11 minutes remaining and the score knotted at one, sophomore forward Katherine Sheeleigh took a pass through the box from senior Erin Wylie and fired it past Holy Cross keeper Mary Ferketic to net what would turn out to be the game-winner.

“You have to always give credit to any team, no matter what their record,” coach Ray Leone said. “I’m more proud of the maturity of our team to respond from a goal down.”

The victory was Harvard’s fifth in a row and the fifth straight game in which Christina Hagner has found the back of the net. The junior jump-started the Crimson comeback with a header off a corner kick from freshman Melanie Baskind in the 61st minute.

“Tonight, we were connecting really well with each other and had good combination play,” co-captain Nicole Rhodes said. “In the second half we were connecting mostly on crosses—that’s something we did particularly well tonight.”

Harvard had only to look to its last game against Holy Cross to make sure it didn’t look past it this time around. These teams met last two years ago in pouring rain at Ohiri Field, where the Crimson held a 1-0 nothing lead throughout but saw goals in the last minutes of regulation and first minutes of overtime seal a steal for the Crusaders in a 2-1 loss.

“I think that heading into this game—our last out-of-conference game—we might have been a little distracted after the win on Saturday,” Rhodes said. “But their record really doesn’t reflect what kind of team they are, and they brought it to us in the first half.”

Holy Cross freshman Katherine Donnelly put the home team on the board early, chipping a shot from the top of the box over junior goalkeeper Laura Dale in the 19th minute for her sixth goal of the season.

“I had seen them play before, so I don’t think we misjudged them,” Leone said. “They’re capable of beating the heck out of you, and that’s what they did for the first 45 minutes. They deserved to be up a goal.”

Though the Crimson wasn’t scoring in the first half, it was knocking on the door.

Harvard held a 12-4 shot advantage before halftime, and mustered a whopping 26 shots to Holy Cross’s 11 for the game.

Ferketic stood tall against Crimson pressure, recording 10 saves.

The second half saw crisper Crimson passing and sustained pressure in the Crusader zone, and Harvard took seven shots in the first 15 minutes before Hagner connected off Baskind’s corner to tie the score.

“Sometimes you can play hard and things go great, but sometimes they don’t,” Leone said. “Today they didn’t, but we were able to muster up a better performance and it helped us be successful.”

The Crusaders kept Dale and her back line on their toes from start to finish, and the keeper’s leap to push a Holy Cross shot over the crossbar to preserve a 1-1 tie stood out as one of the game’s defining plays.

After Mann suffered a concussion, Dale has played the last two games in full after seeing usually a half’s worth of time so far this season. Both keepers should be ready to play in Saturday’s matchup at Princeton.

“Whenever keepers play more, they always get better,” Leone said. “There’s no way to replace the game experience she’s getting.”

Nonconference games are now a thing of the past, a solid warmup for the three Ivy games that will fill out the rest of the Crimson’s schedule.

Now, Harvard can focus solely on its next priority: Princeton, who sits just ahead of the Crimson atop the Ancient Eight standings.

Kickoff in New Jersey is scheduled for Saturday at 7 p.m., and you can be sure Harvard won’t be taking this one lightly.

“In terms of effort,” Rhodes said, “we’re not going to need any more motivation.”

—Staff writer Emily W. Cunningham can be reached at ecunning@fas.harvard.edu.