Men's Soccer Outlasts Brown 1-0

The Harvard men’s soccer team extended its unbeaten streak to six games and remained atop of the Ivy League after claiming a 1-0 victory at Brown (6-5-1, 1-1-1 Ivy) this Friday. The victory marks the third consecutive season in which the Crimson (7-3-2, 2-0-1) has opened up Ancient Eight play by going undefeated in its first three conference games.

“We played with alot of heart, a lot of passion and alot of fight.” captain Andrew Wheeler-Omiunu said. “It was effort that won us the game...we went out there and battled for 90 minutes and got the result.”

After a scoreless first half that saw Harvard dominate the Bears with a 5-2 advantage in shots as well as relentless pressing, junior midfielder Eric Gylling scored the only goal of the game off of a set piece. Classmate Christian Sady swung a cross into the box off of a free kick, where it was met by Gylling to slot it past Brown goalkeeper Erik Hanson.

The goal was the Sacramento, Calif. native’s first goal of his collegiate career and marked the 10th Harvard player to score a goal. Sady picked up his team leading fifth assist of the season, tied for second in the conference.

“The balance that we’ve developed and had over the last few game allows us to be unpredictable, it doesn’t let the opposing team focus on any guys or shut a few guys down...those goals and assists can come from anywhere.” senior forward Jake Freeman said.

It was all Brown early on, as the Bears forced Crimson junior goalkeeper Kyle Parks into two saves within the first six minutes of play as the Harvard backline struggled to assert itself early on. Unlike previous games where the team conceded goals, however, the Crimson quickly found its footing and buckled down for the rest of the stanza, not allowing Brown to get off any more shots.

It took almost 21 minutes for Harvard to get its first shot off, as freshman defender Taner Dogan registered the first two shots before the Crimson managed three more in the final 10 minutes of play.

It was a similar start to the second half, as the Bears outshot Harvard by a 3-1 margin within the first 20 minutes of play before Gylling’s goal put the Crimson ahead. It became a scrappy affair from there on out, with the two teams combining for 11 fouls from that point onward while Brown continued to look for an equalizer.

Parks was tested in the 80th minute after Brown sophomore midfielder Matthew Chow played a through ball past the Harvard backline to teammate Nico Lozada but Parks rushed out of the box to collect the ball and prevent any chance at goal. Though the Bears managed a total of seven shots in the second stanza, they failed to properly threaten the Crimson defense as the team saw the rest of the game out.

Wheeler-Omiunu credits the success of the team to the commitment the team has put to detail leading up to every game this season.

“It’s that commitment to detail.” Wheeler-Omiunu said. “The more we play with each other, the chemistry is going to continue to improve but that commitment to being in the right spots, working hard for each other defensively and offensively...we’re playing very much together on both sides of the ball.”

With the victory, Harvard retains pace with fellow conference leaders Dartmouth and Columbia with seven points. With only four games left in the Ancient Eight calendar, the Crimson heads into a key stretch of road games against Princeton and the Big Green that will likely go a long way in deciding whether or not the team is able to challenge for the title.

Last year, the Crimson headed into its game against the Tigers with three wins in three Ivy games but dropped the next two games against Princeton and Dartmouth to drop the team to third in the conference. This year, the task becomes a little bit harder as Harvard will likely have to win both games while on the road before returning home to face Columbia.

Despite the importance of the upcoming stretch of games, however, the Crimson will look to focus on making improvements during its own preparations to perfect the factors it can control. In doing so, the team hopes to eliminate any potential distractions revolving around other teams or the conference standings.

“The more and more wins we put together, the more confident we are going into each and every game.” Freeman said. “We’ve got to use that drive and go into Princeton with that confidence and just take it one game at a time knowing we can beat every team out there and we have all the tools necessary to win these games coming up.”

—Staff writer Julio Fierro can be reached at julio.fierro@thecrimson.com.