Men's Soccer Falls to Dartmouth, 1-0

In the Ivy League, one game has the ability to make or break a season. On Saturday, it took a single play to do both.

With the inside track to both an Ivy League title and a trip to the NCAA tournament up for grabs on Halloween, that play came after nearly 100 minutes of play—leaving one side on the verge of a celebration and the other wondering what just happened.

After winning a corner with under two minutes to go in the first overtime period against the Harvard men’s soccer team, Dartmouth rookie midfielder Justin Donawa lifted the ball to the middle of the box, where Crimson junior Andrew Wheeler-Omiunu rose to head the ball away.

More than a foot separated Wheeler-Omiunu from the Jordan Field turf by the end of the co-captain’s leap. But when the ball arrived, the 5’9” forward could have used a couple more inches.

Soaring over Wheeler-Omiunu, the ball instead connected with another head—that of Big Green freshman Amadu Kunateh, and the rookie delivered. Driving the ball into the right side of the net, Kunateh lifted Dartmouth to a 1-0 victory, all but sealing a second straight Ivy League championship for the Big Green.

“The guys fought hard,” Harvard coach Pieter Lehrer said. “You can see when the game ends how much it means when they’re all on the ground. [That’s] leaving it out there.”

With a win, the Crimson would have tied Dartmouth atop the conference with 12 points apiece, also earning the head-to-head tiebreaker good for a trip to the Big Dance. But instead, the Big Green moves five points ahead of the rest of the pack—needing one more win to clinch the title.

“It always hurts when it’s a huge game that you build up to all year and you don’t come out with the result you want,” said senior forward Jake Freeman, fighting back tears. “But I love our guys. We have an unbelievable team as we’ve shown all year.”

Freeman, who leads Harvard with five goals—three of which have been game-winners, nearly produced a golden opportunity for the Crimson in the 67th minute. After corralling sophomore midfielder Sam Brown’s lob downfield with his chest, Freeman fought off sophomore defenseman Tyler Dowse on the left wing and entered the box.

But Dowse remained right on his hip. Upon entering the penalty area, the sophomore reached across Freeman with his left leg to push the ball in the direction of the sideline. But Dowse’s tackle instead caught Freeman by the legs, sending the senior tumbling to the ground.

Dowse raised his hands in the air, however, and the referee instructed both sides to play on. The defenseman calmly gained possession of the ball and blasted the ball back upfield to end the threat.

“I thought it was a penalty,” Freeman said. “He was diving in, and I touched it ahead—I didn’t know if he was going to swipe at it or not. I thought I was going to get to it, but when he hit me, I wasn’t trying to go down. He took me down.”

Less than two minutes after surviving the scare, Dartmouth was back on the attack after senior midfielder Alberto Gorini delivered an immaculate through-ball between two defenders to freshman attacker Noah Paravicini.

After taking a touch, Paravicini launched a shot with his right foot that senior netminder Evan Mendez swatted away with both hands. But the rookie corralled the rebound, moved to his right, and beat the goalkeeper with a low-driven shot to the opposite side of the net.

But with the ball about to roll past the outstretched hands of Mendez, junior defenseman Alex Leondis dropped to the ground to protect his goal line, clearing the ball away with his right foot to preserve the tie.

Leondis and the backline maintained their ground all night, holding the Big Green without a shot on goal in the first half and keeping opportunities to a minimum in the second.

Meanwhile, the Crimson logged the game’s first four shots, including an attempt from Freeman that skimmed the crossbar four minutes in. But the Big Green rebounded, finishing with 12 shots to Harvard’s 13, including the one that mattered most.

“[This] hurts right now, but we still have two games left, and anything can happen,” Freeman said. “You don’t know.”

—Staff writer Jake T. Meagher can be reached at jake.meagher@thecrimson.com.