M. Soccer beats Dartmouth 2-1 for second straight win

After a heart-breaking loss to Princeton just a week ago that seemed to crush its Ivy League hopes, the Harvard men's soccer team convincingly beat Dartmouth 2-1 Saturday afternoon at Ohiri Field for its second straight win and can still finish with a plus-.500 record in the league.

Although it is mathematically eliminated from contention for the title, the Crimson (4-8-2, 2-3 Ivy) has proved over the last week that it is still a team to be reckoned with.

Senior forward Armando Petruccelli and several of his teammates have pointed out over the past few weeks that the bounces just haven't gone Harvard's way whenever it seems it is ready to break through.

"That's exactly what's been happening," Petruccelli said. "The bounces hadn't been going our way until lately. We've been able to get the lead and keep it these last two games."

In this light, the past week was a welcome refresher for the Crimson, as it strung together consecutive wins for the first time this season, beating Fairfield 2-0 last Tuesday.

At the 59:31 mark in the second half of Saturday's match, senior striker Will Hench took a quick pass off a free kick from Petruccelli, and fired a laser past Dartmouth's sophomore goalkeeper Ben Gebre-Medhin to give Harvard a 2-1 lead.

"Armando just took [the free kick] real quick," freshman Crimson midfielder Marc Buan said. "Will was able to get a few good touches on it and then he basically just flipped it over the goalie."

Hench's goal turned out to be the eventual game winner as the Big Green (2-8-3, 1-4-1 Ivy) was unable to mount another offensive push and was shut out the rest of the way by sophomore Crimson goalkeeper Mike Meagher, who made two saves.

As has been the case in recent games, Harvard quickly came out of the gates and dominated most of the first half.

Petruccelli, who has undoubtedly been the Crimson's most valuable player this season, extended his point-scoring streak to six games after finishing a cross from Buan inside the Dartmouth six-yard box just 17 minutes into the match.

"It was off a cross from Marc," Petruccelli said. "It was headed my way and I just got the first touch and put it past the goalie."

The lead was almost increased to

2-0 in the 52 minute when Petruccelli beat Gebre-Medhin and shot the ball towards the net, but Dartmouth freshman back Michael Vidmar cleared it off the line just before it went in.

The Big Green capitalized on the Crimson's misfortune and quickly struck back.

At the 57:12 mark, Dartmouth freshman back Kapono Chong-Hanssen sent in a cross from the right corner that was headed in by senior co-captain Jamie Hozack.

Instead of letting the equalizer shatter its confidence, Harvard instead used it as a spark and regained the lead just two minutes later with Hench's third goal of the season.

The Crimson held on for a hard fought 2-1 victory and is now is position for a strong finish that could help them leapfrog into the top two or three in the Ivy League standings.

"We want to finish strong for our coach [John Kerr]," Petruccelli said. "He's done a great job all season and everyday we've gotten better and better. This is the beginning of his program and we want to do well now so next year it can start off fast."

Meagher agreed with his teammate.

"We've really come together these past couple of weeks," he said. "We've started working together and going in the right direction. [The end of the season] is very important for us. We're looking at the bigger picture, mainly next year, and want to be able to build on it now and gain momentum so we can start fast next fall."

Up next for the streaking Crimson is a matchup against Maine tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at Ohiri Field. It then ends its season with two crucial league matchups against Brown and Penn.

Although the playoffs are out of the question for Harvard, its evident that the players still feel there's a lot worth fighting for.

"Considering our start and the injuries we've had, it would be a tremendous lift to do well [these last three games]," Meagher added. "A lot of this just comes down to pride."