SEASON RECAP: Men's Soccer Takes Ivy Title

The lights had finally gone out on the Harvard men’s soccer team, and the Crimson had just suffered a season-ending defeat at the hands of Maryland. But even the darkest moment of Harvard’s season couldn’t stop the Crimson from shining.

“It was one of the best seasons I’ve been a part of,” rising co-captain Jaren LaGreca said.

The Ivy Champions had earned the 10th seed in the NCAA tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16 for their best NCAA performance in 22 years before falling to the reigning national champion Terrapins.

Harvard came out of the gates flying, winning its first six games and earning the No. 6 ranking in the country before falling, 1-0, to third-ranked Wake Forest on Sept. 26. The loss to the Demon Deacons didn’t cause the Crimson to veer off course, though, as the team picked up two more victories after the defeat.

But in a two-week stretch in October, two tough losses and one unexpected tie threatened to derail Harvard’s title hopes. Harvard tied Cornell, 1-1, on Oct. 10, and then suffered its worst loss of the season, a 4-0 defeat to No. 17 Connecticut, four days later.

After the loss, the Crimson responded with a 1-0 win over 15th-ranked Brown. Though the team followed its victory over the Bears by topping another Rhode Island school, Providence College, it would soon taste heartbreak again.

The third loss would prove to be the toughest. For the first time all season, the Crimson fell at home and to an unranked opponent when it dropped a double-overtime contest to Princeton. When co-captain Andre Akpan finally put Harvard on the board after 66 minutes of scoreless soccer, it looked as if the Crimson’s undefeated record in the Ivy League would live another day, due mostly to a strong outing from sophomore goalie Austin Harms. But 20 seconds later, the score was evened again when the Tigers’ Antoine Hoppenot ended Harms’ shutout. Two overtimes later, Hoppenot would strike again, sending Princeton home with a victory and Harvard back to the locker room with its Ivy standing in jeopardy.

But the next weekend, the Crimson turned around its season for good in another game at Ohiri Field.

“A lot of our success was [our] ability to bounce back from tough losses,” freshman Brian Rogers said.

For a team characterized by its senior leadership, it was fitting that seniors would catalyze the season-changing 2-1 victory over Dartmouth. Senior defenseman Kwaku Nyamekye broke a scoring drought of a little less than a year when he knocked classmate Adam Rousmaniere’s corner kick into the right corner of the goal less than five minutes into the contest. Just as in the past two games, Harvard surrendered the lead when Lucky Mkosana pulled the Big Green even at 55:26. But this time, the Crimson responded when co-captain Brian Grimm kicked a deep ball that was recovered by Akpan, who beat two Dartmouth defenders for the game-winning goal. Nyamekye later sealed the deal with a defensive save.

“That win got us back on the right path,” Rogers said. “That’s what the seniors and the leaders are supposed to do, and they did.”

Harvard wouldn’t lose again until the NCAA Sweet 16. The weekend after it topped the Big Green, it was the Crimson’s turn to rally from a one-goal deficit at Columbia, as Rogers and junior Alex Chi scored to give Harvard the game, keeping its league title hopes alive. The next weekend, the Crimson accomplished its mission when another rookie, Richard Smith, scored the game’s lone goal against Penn to give Harvard the Ivy title.

“At the end of the year, we became extremely focused,” senior Desmond Mitchell said.

Peaking at the right time, the Crimson rolled to a 3-0 victory over Monmouth in the second round of the NCAA tournament before falling to Maryland in the third round.

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu.