NOTEBOOK: Freshman Continues Scoring Ways in Draw

A stalemate between the Harvard women’s soccer team and BU ended the Crimson’s six game winning streak at Nickerson Field Tuesday night.

Without seeing a goal for the final sixty minutes of the match, Harvard (6-3-2) and the Terriers (8-3-2) went into double overtime before ending the game in a tie, 1-1.

SHOTS ON GOAL

For the first time this season, Harvard did not outshoot its opponent. BU edged out the Crimson in shots, 13-6. Harvard registered two shots on goal, while the Terriers snuck in four shots on frame.

“We were just going to play, and that’s what we did,” Crimson coach Ray Leone said. “I think there [were] moments where they captured the game, and they were dictating their style more than we were, but at the same time, we had our opportunities too.”

Senior forward Madison Clemens led BU in shots with four attempts, but senior midfielder Megan McGoldrick tallied the Terriers lone goal of the match.

Harvard recorded the final shot of the game in double-overtime, when junior defender Marie Margolius’s attempt went wide of the frame in the 105th minute.

The second overtime marked the only period in which the Crimson outshot BU. In the game’s opening half, Terriers registered eight shots to Harvard’s three attempts.

Freshman forward Midge Purce pocketed the Crimson’s only goal on the night. After beating her defender one-on-one from the left side, the freshman found the back of the net in the 27th minute.

The score is the seventh of the season for the highly-touted rookie from Maryland as she is quickly becoming a mainstay on Harvard’s front line. Her fifteen points this year—she is averaging greater than one per contest—are best on the team and put her near the top of the Ivy League.

Purce’s goal came fifteen minutes after McGoldrick ripped a shot from inside the 18-yard box to put BU up in the 12th minute.

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

Knotting the score might be a new tradition between Harvard and the Terriers, since the two teams tied, 2-2, last season on the Crimson’s turf.

The 2012 game also included two overtime periods, although both squads registered roughly twice as many shots in last season’s game as compared to the 2013 season matchup.

Stalemates have not been unusual in the past, with the Crimson edging out the Terriers in the overall matchup record, 6-5-5.

“I think we really matched up to a great BU team, and we showed them that we could stick with them throughout the whole game,” co-captain forward Elizabeth Weisman said.

While Harvard may have seen its winning streak broken, the Crimson did manage to score the first goal this season against the BU defense on its home turf. Before Tuesday night’s match against Harvard, it had not happened since last September.

LAST LINE OF DEFENSE

Splitting time in goal for the contest, freshman Lizzie Durack and junior Cheta Emba registered two and one save, respectively. Durack started the match and fell just two saves shy of her career high of four.

Emba shut out the Terriers in the second half, registering a save and bringing her season total to seven.

BU had senior Andrea Green in between the pipes for the entirety of the game, with the Terriers goalkeeper tallying just a single save from the Crimson’s two shots on goal.

“I think we feel good,” Weisman said. “I think that we’re just looking to Cornell, just focusing on one game at a time, so we went through today, and now it’s all about focusing on Cornell and keeping that unbeaten streak.”

Two ties bookend six Harvard wins, bringing the “unbeaten streak” to eight contests.

“We’re just trying to improve,” Leone said. “I don’t think about any of that stuff. All I think about is just making sure that they’re improving every single day and focusing on whatever the next game is.”

Of the past eight matchups, only two have been against Ivy League teams—Penn and Yale. Facing Cornell in New York this weekend, the Crimson hopes to maintain an untarnished record in the conference.

—Staff writer Kelley Guinn McArtor can be reached at kelley.mcartor@thecrimson.com Follow her on Twitter @KGMCrimson.