Women's Soccers Defense Holds Strong, Wins 1-0

Notching its first win of the season, the Harvard women’s soccer team edged out Long Island University Brooklyn, 1-0 at Soldier’s Field Soccer Stadium Sunday afternoon. The Crimson (1-3-1) dominated the Blackbirds (2-4-1) in possession as LIU Brooklyn failed to register a single shot in the second half.

“I think it was a really great result, a really great effort from every player,” co-captain midfielder Peyton Johnson said. “It was great to see the offensive pressure we’ve been putting on come through as a goal.”

Freshman goalkeeper Lizzie Durack saved one of the Blackbird shots in the 16th minute of the opening period.

The opportunity came when Durack passed into the LIU Brooklyn offense but she was able to recover and save a shot from freshman Tori Shinkowitz. The Blackbirds failed to tally any other shots on goal, with their two other shots going high or wide. The game marked Durack’s first start in goal.

“Lizzie had a great game in goal,” Johnson said. “We’re really lucky with the goalkeeping group that we have—we’ve got three, and any one of them can go in the goal.”

The Harvard offense also benefited from freshman talent, with forward Midge Purce netting the match’s lone point.

The goal marked Purce’s second of the season, the first of which occurred in the team’s home opener last Wednesday against New Hampshire in a 2-1 loss.

This time around, the freshman’s goal was enough to snag the win for Harvard.

“[Midge], as a freshman, has come in and not been afraid,” Johnson said. “She’s done a great job finishing her chances. A lot of other freshmen came in…and really made a difference during the minutes they played. Everybody that’s come onto this team has been majorly contributing.”

Purce’s opportunity originated from a long shot by junior midfielder Meg Casscells-Hamby.

LIU Brooklyn goaltender Jessica Sexton deflected the ball, sending it to the feet of sophomore forward Emily Mosbacher.

The sophomore dished the ball to Purce, who placed it in the goal. Purce’s goal against UNH also came on a rebound.

“I think we were really encouraged by the goal,” junior midfielder Laura Aguilar said. “It was the first time this season that we had been up, so I think that kind of gave us an extra push…. We’re really excited about the win—we’ve been trying really hard and it was great to finally get a win under our belt.”

While the Crimson’s only goal came in the 37th minute, the Harvard offense tallied an impressive 18 shots, nine of which were on goal.

Notable attempts came from junior defender Marie Margolius and co-captain forward Lizzy Weisman. In the 18th minute, Margolius was able to get off a shot in the 18-yard box, but Sexton performed a kick save to prevent a score.

“I think after a few games of playing together, we were able to put the pieces together,” Aguilar said. “We played great games in the past five days, which is a lot without a lot of time to practice. We’re looking forward to training and working on things we could learn from these past few days.”

Weisman came close to pushing Harvard ahead by two goals when the senior shot on Blackbird goaltender Shannon O’Connor, who subsequently deflected the ball back into play.

When Weisman attempted another shot off of her own rebound, the co-captain got an unlucky bounce when the shot ricocheted off the crossbar and bounced right on the goal line.

“I think that against other teams this season, we had breakdowns for periods of time throughout the game,” Johnson said. “Today, we figured out how to come out strong…. I think in the first 30 minutes or so we weren’t playing our own game, but then we calmed down and started playing at our level.”

—Staff writer Kelley Guinn McArtor can be reached at kgmcartor@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @CrimsonKGM.