No. 11 Harvard Whips Providence, 7-1

Yesterday amidst a light drizzle at Ohiri Field, the Harvard women's soccer team defeated Providence, 7-1. It was not that close of a game.

There are blowouts, and then there are blowouts. To put it another way, this one was over before Harvard was even founded.

Consider the following: Providence's only goal came when an errant Harvard pass accidentally went into the net. The Crimson's goaltenders only had to touch the ball 12 times yesterday, mostly on back-passes, while its offense took 26 shots. The Friars (2-16 overall) had two shots.

It was everything one might expect a 7-1 soccer game to be, and then some.

From the opening kick, the Crimson (13-1, 5-0 Ivy) began an all-out blitz on the Friar net. Providence goalie Sheila Gibbons made the first of her four saves less than three minutes into the contest, and Harvard had two corners in the first five minutes.

"One of the things we were determined to do was to come out strong," Harvard coach Tim Wheaton said. "We didn't do that [in our loss last week] against UConn."

These attacks continued without stop until the 21st minute, when junior Emily Stauffer trapped a loose ball at the top of the goalbox and sailed it into the upper left corner of the net.

"Dana [Tenser] sent in a great corner kick, it just bounced around [and came to me], Stauffer said. "My job is to stand at the top of the [box] to get anything that pops out, and I just trapped it."

After that goal, providence went on a bit of an offensive run--Harvard goaltender Jennifer Burney had to touch the ball twice in a minute--but soon enough, the Crimson got rolling again.

With 12 minutes to go in the half, freshman Beth Zotter ricocheted a long shot off of the crossbar into the net, putting Harvard up 2-0. Junior Lindsay Minkus and freshman Ashley Berman then tallied goals in the next three minutes, both on assists from Zotter, which effectively put the game away.

"We came out dominating, and even though it took us a while to finish, I think everyone was pretty happy with it," Minkus said. "You keep pressing like that, in such a game like this you know it's going to [eventually] happen. Once it clicks, it clicks."

In the second half, not much changed. Freshman Julia Blain and sophomore Naomi Miller scored in the first five minutes of the half, making the score a whopping 6-0.

Then, Wheaton got even more liberal with his substitutions. He had already done many--neither Zotter, Minkus or Berman were in the starting lineup--but the huge lead allowed him to shift positions around and let backups go on the field for extended periods of time.

"We have a lot of depth, a lot of people that can play," Wheaton said.

The Friars got their only goal in a play that could be described as Divine Providence. Junior Jessica Henderson tried to give a back-pass to freshman goaltender Anne Browning, but the two got mixed up somehow and Henderson ended up scoring past the outstretched leg of Browning.

In any other game, such a play would be a huge momentum-shifter; here, it was kind of a joke. There were 15 minutes left to play and the lead had been slashed to five. And when Blain tallied her second goal of the day 10 minutes later, the original margin was restored.

It's Showtime

The Harvard players weren't exactly looking past Providence, but also they certainly have not forgotten about Saturday's game against Dartmouth.

The Big Green is tied with the Crimson for first place in the Ivies and is still seething over last year's loss in Hanover. Harvard is the defending Ivy Champion and the favorite; Dartmouth wants to take over the top of the hill.

"Dartmouth is in a little bit better position coming into this game because they're the underdog, and we beat them last year and Harvard's expected to go to NCAA on the Ivy League bid," Stauffer said. "It's always easier for them to say that Harvard's overrated and we're going to knock them off their block.' We're both good teams and we're both going to have a lot of emotion, [but] I'm pretty confident with the quality of players on our team." Providence  1 Harvard  7

HARVARD, 7-1 at Cambridge, Mass. Providence  0  1  --  1 Harvard  4  3  --  7

Scoring

Har--Stauffer (unassisted) 21:09.

Har--Zotter (Bingham) 32:24.

Har--Minkus (Zotter) 33:12.

Har--Berman (Zotter) 34:39.

Har--Blain (Stauffer, Zotter) 46:52.

Har--Miller (Stauffer) 49:17.

Prov--own goal 74:49.

Har--Berman (Chemikoff) 84:08.

Saves: Prov--Gibbons 4, Burke 4; Har--Bumey 0, Browning 2, Bagley 0.

HARVARD, 7-1 at Cambridge, Mass. Providence  0  1  --  1 Harvard  4  3  --  7

Scoring

Har--Stauffer (unassisted) 21:09.

Har--Zotter (Bingham) 32:24.

Har--Minkus (Zotter) 33:12.

Har--Berman (Zotter) 34:39.

Har--Blain (Stauffer, Zotter) 46:52.

Har--Miller (Stauffer) 49:17.

Prov--own goal 74:49.

Har--Berman (Chemikoff) 84:08.

Saves: Prov--Gibbons 4, Burke 4; Har--Bumey 0, Browning 2, Bagley 0.

Scoring

Har--Stauffer (unassisted) 21:09.

Har--Zotter (Bingham) 32:24.

Har--Minkus (Zotter) 33:12.

Har--Berman (Zotter) 34:39.

Har--Blain (Stauffer, Zotter) 46:52.

Har--Miller (Stauffer) 49:17.

Prov--own goal 74:49.

Har--Berman (Chemikoff) 84:08.

Saves: Prov--Gibbons 4, Burke 4; Har--Bumey 0, Browning 2, Bagley 0.