Veteran Freeman Powers Men's Soccer

In the 20th minute of last Saturday’s match between the Harvard men’s soccer team and visiting Cornell, senior forward Jake Freeman chased down a deep lob pass over the Big Red (0-9-2, 0-2-0 Ivy) back line and finished emphatically to aid the Crimson (5-3-2, 1-0-1) in its eventual 4-0 victory.

The play started when Harvard junior midfielder Christian Sady regained possession after a Cornell clear and sent a crafty chip pass over the Big Red’s flat back four. Freeman sprinted after the ball and controlled it nicely off his chest before flicking it over Cornell goalie Ryan Shellow for the 2-0 cushion lead.

“I saw the spacing behind with [Cornell’s] high line,” Freeman recalled. “[Sady] is going to put the ball on a platter for me like he always does, and it was just my job to take a touch down to the finish.”

Freeman had already tallied points by the time his shot rolled across the goal line, as he assisted on sophomore forward Cesar Farias’s third-minute goal. Freeman, a Melville, NY, native, pitched in with his second goal of the evening in the 69th minute when, off a long throw-in, he came crashing into the box and buried a bouncing ball, completing his five-point night.

As Harvard’s scoring leader for the 2015 campaign, Freeman finds himself in a somewhat unsurprising position: He sits atop the Ancient Eight in points with 16, already flirting with the 17 points he amassed last season. Further, the 2015 All-Ivy League first team selection moved to second in both the conference goals and assists rankings, boasting six and four, respectively, on the year.

Since the Crimson returned from its shaky California road trip in mid-September, Freeman has notched at least a point in all four games, averaging two per match. In that same span, Harvard has enhanced its season record to above .500, going 3-0-1, and has remained unbeaten in the Ancient Eight behind Freeman’s seven Ivy League points.

“As one of the guys up top in the system we play, it’s my job to be on the score sheet,” Freeman said. “When it results in goals and assists and setting up other guys as well, it just creates a good feeling around the team.”

In addition to the points, goals, and assists categories, Freeman leads his fellow Crimson teammates in shot attempts, shots on goal, and game-winning goals; overall he accounts for one-third of Harvard goals this season.

Despite all these statistics, he defers modestly to his teammates’ play as the source of his individual success.

“As an attacking group, we’ve developed good composure in the attacking third,” Freeman said. “Can we possess [the ball], can we put the ball in behind, can we make the other team defend? [This mentality has] resulted in good chances and a lot of good looks for other guys as well.”

On Saturday evening, Freeman led an attack that looked sharp for the whole 90 minutes. Especially on the offensive end, his teammates were engaged and involved all night, as the team successfully emphasized the aforementioned keys to the game, namely possessing the ball, sending balls through Cornell’s back line, and forcing the Big Red to defend more often than attack.

“Efficient and effective,” Harvard co-captain Andrew Wheeler-OmiunuI said. “I remember [Freeman] putting away the few shots he had.”

Efficiency has been Freeman’s modus operandi all season, as his shot percentage of .222 is significantly more accurate than the .167 number he has posted in the past two campaigns.

Since joining the team in 2012, Freeman has grown into the team leader he is today, making two All-Ivy teams along the way. And with six guaranteed games left in the season, teammates can only hope that this production continues.

“[Freeman] is one of the leaders on our team,” Wheeler-Omiunu said. “He is embracing [this role] more so this year than I’ve ever seen him before. He’s very good at mentoring and giving advice to the younger strikers.... He also is a very good model of how to conduct [oneself] off the field.”