M. Soccer Falls again to Hartwick, 3-1

Looking to break out of a three-game losing streak, the Harvard men's soccer team traveled to Oneonta, NY on Saturday afternoon to face the Hartwick Hawks.

It was not to be, however, as Harvard was denied once again, losing 4-1.

Matt Strode scored two goals for the Hawks (6-7) as they won for the fourth straight time, while the Crimson (2-7-1, 1-2 Ivy) was left looking ahead to crucial Ivy League matches in the next two weeks.

After scoring just five goals in its first nine games, Hartwick has scored 12 in its current win streak.

Hawk's junior captain Andrew Sambrook netted a goal and an assist on the day.

"All of a sudden balls that are hitting the post are going in for us," Hartwick Coach Jim Lennox said.

Unfortunately for Harvard, the Hawks quickly hit their stride in their match and never looked back.

The Crimson played tough for the first 20 minutes of the game before Strode turned on a loose ball and booted a laser shot over the head of sophomore goalkeeper Mike Meagher from 12 yards out at the 26:29 mark.

"We were playing well until that point," senior striker Will Hench said. "They didn't have many chances, but after that goal, our confidence seemed to go down."

"We were basically dominating them for the first twenty minutes," junior captain Ryan Kelly added. "But we haven't been a team that's scored a lot recently, and that goal took away most of the momentum that we had."

Just minutes before the first half ended, Strode broke the Crimson's back after striking a low shot off the inside of the right post and watching it roll into the left corner of the net, giving the Hawks a 2-0 lead.

Strode has scored three goals with an assist in Hartwick's last two games after being moved from central defender to forward.

Hartwick was able to deal with the Crimson offense even without two of its starting backs. Peter Slobodyan (knee sprain) and Ryan Tracey (deep thigh bruise) missed the game with injuries.

The Hawks added another late first half goal at the 44:24 mark, as junior midfielder Mike Deming blasted a shot into the upper left corner of the net to notch his first goal of the season.

"Our season has been a lot like this game," Hench said. "We've had bad luck all season, and this game was no different."

The Crimson's only highlight came with 13 minutes left in the match when senior forward Armando Petruccelli scored on a penalty kick after sophomore forward John Oslowski was tripped in the goal box.

The Hawks weren't finished, though, as Sambrook finished off Hartwick's scoring with an amazing 30 yard shot just two minutes before the final horn sounded.

After playing a mostly non-Ivy league schedule thus far in its season, the Crimson hopes to regroup and finish strong with good results in conference play.

"That's definitely one of our goals," Kelly said. "I'd like to say the game's score was misleading, but 4-1is 4-1.

But if you were there, you wouldn't have thought that [Hartwick was] three goals better than us."

The Crimson now prepares for a match against Holy Cross tomorrow afternoon at Ohiri Field. It also plays host to Princeton on Saturday.

Harvard hopes that it can rediscover some of its early season success in time for its important upcoming league matches.