Behind Purce’s Goal, Women's Soccer Beats Brown, 1-0

Junior forward Midge Purce’s eighth goal of the season lifted the Harvard women’s soccer team to a 1-0 victory over Brown in a physical Saturday afternoon contest at a windy Jordan Field.

It was supposed to be a matchup of two teams going in different directions. The Crimson (7-6-1, 4-0-0 Ivy League) had rolled through its first three Ivy League contests, winning each by at least two scores without conceding a goal. Meanwhile, the Bears (4-7-2, 0-3-1) had yet to tally an Ivy League goal en route to a winless Ivy start. But Brown gave Harvard all it could handle.

“Brown is a really challenging team and hats off to them, but it’s good to have challenging games in the middle of the season,” co-captain Haley Washburn said.

The Crimson offense came out firing to start the game, posting 13 first-half shots—including five from junior forward Rachel Garcia. But only two of Harvard’s 13 tries were on goal, and none found the netting, marking the first time the Crimson had been held scoreless in the first half of an Ivy League game this season.

Coming out of halftime, Harvard attacked the Bears’ zone, and in the 73rd minute, the Crimson finally cashed in. After a struggle and a series of passes in front of the net, Purce beat Brown freshman goalkeeper Christine Etzel to put her side ahead. It was the sixth goal for Purce in her last four games and her fifth Ivy League score. Garcia picked up an assist on the play, and the pair combined for 14 shots on the afternoon.

“[Rachel and Midge] were awesome,” Washburn said. “I don’t have much else to say. They were really good.”

Despite posting 25 shots—tied for the most the Crimson has had in a game this season, Harvard only put six on goal, resulting in just the one score. Brown’s physical defense, which has struggled at times in Ivy League play, contained the Crimson attack.

“Our finishing was really off today,” Harvard coach Ray Leone said. “It was a very difficult game, we did not play well. I have to give my credit to Brown. They had a lot to do with it.”

But on the other end of the field, the Crimson backline held the Bears in check all afternoon. The Harvard defense has not surrendered a goal in conference play and has only allowed one since Sept. 26. Brown had five first-half shots but none in the second half.

“We’re working on things every week, places we’ve been exposed in previous games,” Washburn said. “[We’re] just staying positive when we make mistakes and helping each other through stuff because we’re always going to be making mistakes, and there’s always room for improvement.”

Defenders Marie Becker, Bailey Gary, and Alika Keene all played the entire game. The Crimson only utilized three substitutes on Saturday, and each of them played less than 20 minutes. The 14 players used are tied for the fewest Harvard has used in a game all year.

Junior goalkeeper Lizzie Durack stopped both of the shots she faced. The junior has only needed to stop eight shots total in the team’s four conference matches.

The game proved to be a wake-up call of sorts for the Crimson following an entire week off from games after four consecutive contests in which the team had scored at least two goals.

“It’s a help to keep the edge of a rough game, a 1-0 game,” Leone said. “Everyone wants to score goals like crazy, but if you don’t, it keeps your edge.”

Harvard improved to 7-2-0 against the Bears under Leone, with victories coming in the last five matchups. Freshman netminder Christine Etzel, the twin sister of Crimson backup goalkeeper Danielle Etzel, finished the game with five saves for Brown.

Following her goal against Cornell last week, senior forward Emily Mosbacher notched five shots in 86 minutes of action, while sophomore midfielder Dani Stollar added two. Seven different Harvard players registered a shot, while eight played the entire game.

“I thought we did really well supporting each other,” Washburn said. “It was a really weird game. It was windy and the balls weren’t really going where we wanted them to. I thought we worked well together, we got through it, we had a lot of grit.”

—Staff writer Stephen J. Gleason can be reached at sgleason@college.harvard.edu.