Underclassmen Lead Way in Road Victory

On a warm Labor Day afternoon, the No. 10 Harvard men’s soccer team was fittingly hard at work, pulling out a 3-2 victory in an arduous battle with the Massachusetts Minutemen at Rudd Field.

Sophomores Brian Rogers and Scott Prozeller and freshman Ross Friedman all scored for the Crimson (2-0-0). It was Rogers’ second goal in two games and the first of Friedman’s collegiate career.

“It’s huge,” Rogers said of the 2-0 start. “It gave the whole team a lot of confidence...It shows that everything we’re doing in practice and everything the coaching staff is telling us is paying off.”

UMass (0-1-1) got on the board first on a penalty kick, after Harvard was called for an off-the-ball penalty on an indirect kick inside the box. Minuteman forward Bryan Craft knocked it past the fingertips of diving Crimson goalie Austin Harms to give Massachusetts the 1-0 lead at the 18:21 mark.

“I actually think that was a great catalyst to kick-start our energy and really get us playing well,” Harvard coach Carl Junot said of Craft’s goal.

The Crimson was able to strike back at the 44:47 mark. Freshman Kyle Henderson took a corner kick that classmate Connor McCarthy picked up and fired on goal. Prozeller was able to control the rebound of McCarthy’s shot for Harvard and blast the ball inside the left post and past UMass goalie Shane Curran-Hays to tie up the game right before halftime.

“[That goal] turned the tables in terms of energy and momentum,” Junot said.

McCarthy’s shot was only the Crimson’s second on net in a physical first half which featured 24 total fouls and two yellow cards.

Harvard kept up the momentum early in the second period, when Rogers took a cross from co-captain Robert Millock and fired a shot towards the right post and into the net to give the Crimson a 2-1 advantage.

“It was a great ball by Rob,” Rogers said. “I just took it down off my chest and put it in the back of the net.”

The Minutemen had a pair of chances to tie things up in the 57th minute, but a shot by midfielder Ben Arikian was blocked in front of the net by the Harvard defense, and a subsequent attempt by fellow midfielder Stuart Amick hit the crossbar.

In the 71st minute, it was again the freshmen who were making big plays, when Friedman scored on a top-corner header off a cross from the right by Henderson, who picked up his second assist of the game.

“As much as I’m pleased with their production, I’m also pleased with their maturity,” Junot said of his freshmen.

From that point forward, the Minutemen were on the attack, but the two-goal mountain proved too tough to climb. Shots by forward Hellah Sibide and defenseman Andrew Henshaw soared high in the 74th and 75th minutes, respectively. Harms then made an 81st-minute save on an attempt by UMass midfielder Tyler Cleverdon, which proved to be Harms’ only save of the afternoon.

Amick was able to pull his team within one at the 84:58 mark, when he scored on a shot inside the box.

An offsides call on Harvard with under 30 seconds remaining made things interesting, as the Minutemen placed high pressure on Harms with ten men inside the offensive box. But UMass couldn’t muster a shot the rest of the way and the Crimson was able to hold on for victory.

“Overall, we managed the game very well,” Junot said. “It’s always a big challenge to come from behind...I thought we had a good game plan, and I thought the players responded well to what we were trying to do.”

It was certainly a rough game, with 48 total fouls and multiple injury timeouts.

“I don’t like to play that type of game where we have to foul a lot in order to be successful,” Junot said. “But at the same time, I think that’s what was called for the way the game was being played.”

Rogers led the team with four shots and three shots on goal in the winning effort. With the victory, Harvard improved to 8-0-1 against its intrastate rivals since 1985.

“I think our team showed a lot of character today,” Rogers said. “We went down early, but everyone kind of grouped together. We knew we were the better team, so as long as we just kept playing the way we knew we could, we would win.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.