Purce Records Hat Trick; Women's Soccer Blows Out Yale

Junior forward Midge Purce recorded her first collegiate hat trick as the Harvard women’s soccer team cruised to a 4-0 victory over Yale on Saturday in New Haven. The women’s soccer edition of The Game saw the Crimson produce its most goals of the season and post its largest margin of victory.

“Every game we play in the Ivy League is a huge game,” Purce said. “It’s really important to the whole season because we only have seven of them. Every single team we play is a contender to be the Ivy League champion.”

Harvard (4-6-1, 2-0-0 Ivy) put the game out of the reach of the Bulldogs (3-5-2, 0-2-0) within the contest’s first six minutes. Purce picked up a goal in the second minute and another one in the sixth, while junior defender Bailey Gary picked up the first goal of her collegiate career, an unassisted tally that was sandwiched between two assists on her classmate’s goals.

“It definitely was a really good defensive performance,” senior Brooke Dickens said. “To have a defender [score and have two assists] is really awesome. We really limited Yale’s scoring chances and played well in the back. Our defense in the middle, all the way up to the forwards, was really good too.”

The Crimson dominated in all facets of the game, registering 21 shots, including 11 on net, while only allowing four Yale shots all afternoon. Through a pair of Ivy League games, Harvard has registered 22 shots on net and six goals—one more score than the team had through its first nine contests.

Even after going up 3-0 in the first, the Crimson did not let up on either end. The offense unleashed eight more shots and had four corner kicks, while the defense only conceded two Yale shots both before and after halftime. The barrage was led by Purce and sophomore midfielder Dani Stollar, who both had five shots apiece on the game.

The final goal of the hat trick and fifth of the season for Purce came in the 51st minute. Co-captain Haley Washburn sent a pass to Purce and the Olney, Md., native beat Bulldogs goalkeeper Rachel Ames for the third time. It was also the fourth goal for Purce against Yale in her career.

For Harvard, the fast start was something the team has not been accustomed to this season. The three first half goals were the most the team has had since the first round of last season’s NCAA Tournament. The team had tallied only two first half goals all season before Saturday.

“It definitely gives your team a boost because you know that you’re ahead,” Dickens said. “It happened, but you play afterwards because you can’t have an attitude of complacency. It’s definitely a nice extra pad when you’re playing, but you have to keep playing the rest of the game as if those goals don’t exist.”

The cold and windy weather in New Haven, Conn., did not seem to bother a Crimson attack that scored its most goals in an Ivy League game since October of last year against Princeton.

The win was not only big for Harvard’s momentum, but it also gave the team a boost in the early Ivy League standings. The Crimson sits at the top of the table, along with Princeton, after a perfect first two weekends in conference play. It was the team’s first road victory since the season opener against Army on Aug. 30.

“Our team sat down and we made clear what our goal was,” Purce said. “We had a very rough preseason, we played absolutely incredible teams and we took from every team and learned something about our own team. At the end of that, we went back to the drawing board, all 27 of us, and said ‘this is what we need to do,’ and we were all in.”

The Bulldogs have not won a game since ousting Villanova on Sept. 11. Harvard’s last loss to Yale was in 2007, and the team is 7-1-1 all-time against the Bulldogs during Crimson coach Ray Leone’s tenure.

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