Men's Soccer Earns Draw With No. 9 Washington, Falls to Seattle

In less than a second, the Harvard men’s soccer team came inches away from earning its biggest win of the season not once, but twice.

On the road against No. 9 Washington, the Crimson nearly became the first team to knock off the Huskies thanks to senior forward Michael Innocenzi’s overtime strike. But the shot bounced off the crossbar, then the goal line, denying Harvard of the potential upset.

That proved to be the closest the Crimson (1-3-2) would come to scoring over the course of its Pacific Northwest road trip, as Harvard played to a scoreless draw with Washington (4-0-2) on Sunday and dropped a 2-0 decision to Seattle (5-2-0) on Friday.

HARVARD 0, WASHINGTON 0

With Huskies’ freshman defender Luke Hauswirth backpedaling into the box to contain Innocenzi, a cut to the right was the only move the senior needed to make. With Hauswirth’s momentum carrying him in the opposite direction, Innocenzi took advantage of the open space and ripped a shot from just inside the 18-yard box.

The blast clanged off the bottom portion of the crossbar and shot down towards the goal line, landing directly on the white paint. Some members of the Crimson, Innocenzi among them, believed that the ball had crossed the line while in the air, but the referees ruled that it had remained out of the net.

With the play happening so fast, senior forward Jake Freeman acknowledged that the ruling could have gone either way, but in the moment, he thought his side has just earned a win.

“Looking at replays, the angles they give, I can’t really tell,” Freeman said. “But I was right there. I was actually running in as he shot; I was inside the 18. To me, it looked like a goal.”

In the aftermath of Harvard’s big opportunity, Washington dominated the remaining time. Over the final 16 minutes, the Huskies outshot the Crimson, 8-0, with three shots on goal.

None turned out to be more dangerous than Washington forward Josh Heard’s attempt from inside the box in the 105th minute. Heard tried to curl a shot inside the right post, but the senior’s shot was denied by a fully extended Evan Mendez, Harvard’s senior netminder, who sprawled to his left to make an acrobatic stop with his left hand.

“Evan Mendez is an unbelievable goalie,” Freeman said. “People have seen that throughout his four years here, but Sunday, he was just on a different level. From the first minute to the last minute of the game, he was the best player on the field—no question about it.”

The save was one of seven on the game for Mendez, who recorded his first shutout of the season in the draw. In the other net, Huskies’ senior goalie Ryan Herman picked up his fourth shutout of the year. Washington has surrendered just two goals through six games—both to Dartmouth, another Ivy League opponent.

Despite the Huskies’ impressive defensive track record, however, the Crimson managed to generate its share of chances throughout the contest. Washington outshot Harvard, 19-11, for the game, but during regulation, the Huskies held only an 11-10 edge. Senior forwards Oliver White and Freeman each found open space inside the box on separate occasions, but neither attacker could keep their shots on net.

“Washington did have a very good defense, but we created a lot of chances,” Freeman said. “They may have won the shot category, but we feel our chances may have been some of the better ones.”

SEATTLE 2, HARVARD 0

Prior to the draw with the Huskies, the Crimson’s weekend got out to a sluggish start on Friday. Propelled by the first two goals of freshman forward Sergio Rivas’s collegiate career, Seattle proved too much to handle, picking up a 2-0 win over Harvard.

The Redhawks outshot the Crimson, 9-3, in the first half, but Harvard held the hosts to just one shot on goal. However, the Crimson defense—still playing without co-captain Mark Ashby—eventually began to wear down, allowing Seattle to break through in the second frame.

In a span of fewer than 10 minutes, Rivas converted a tap-in and capitalized on a deflection, giving the Redhawks a commanding two-goal edge. Rivas’s first score in the 56th minute also provided rookie forward Julio Rubio with the first assist of his career.

“We were in it scoreline-wise in the first half, but in terms of play, they dominated play for the most part, and that continued through the second half,” junior co-captain Andrew Wheeler-Omiunu said. “They were just able to put away some of their chances in the second half.”

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