M. Soccer Welcomes Struggling Big Green

The Ivy schedule has been especially difficult for the Harvard men’s soccer team this season. In all four of the Crimson’s league contests, its opponent was entered the match undefeated in conference play. The relentless schedule has left Harvard with just one win in these crucial games.

But now, they get a Dartmouth.

Though ranked at one point during the season, the Big Green (4-7-1, 0-4 Ivy) has since fallen from such graces. The team has lost seven straight in a winless October and now stands at the bottom rung of the Ivy League.

And while Dartmouth may be at a new low point, the Crimson (6-4-3, 1-2-1) is just cresting. In the past five games, Harvard has lost only once, a 3-0 defeat at the hands of No. 11 Brown.

The Crimson is especially eager to take advantage of a struggling Big Green offense. In the past five games—four of which were shutouts—Dartmouth has managed just one goal. That lone score came against Columbia, a game which the Big Green lost in true heartbreaking fashion. Tied 1-1 and nearing the end of regulation, the Lions scored the game winner off of a free kick with just 15 seconds left.

And though Dartmouth may have more goals than the Crimson—19 to Harvard’s 18—nearly a third of those came in the pouring rain during a 6-0 shellacking of St. Bonaventure (2-13-1). Without this breakout game, Columbia, Penn, Yale and Harvard would all outrank Big Green in goals scored. But as it stands, Brown is the only Ivy school that leads Dartmouth in this category (22).

The Big Green’s offensive production has also been especially one-sided. Fourteen of its goals have come off the efforts of just two players, Rob Daly and Mark Limpert. No other players have more than one. Three of Daly’s goals came in the game against the Bonnies.

“I’m not sure skill-wise if they’re at our level,” said freshman defender David Williams. “They don’t have any really explosive weapons, and they play a normal 4-4-2, so I don’t think we’re going to formulate our game plan around them.”

But as players were quick to point out, the Crimson’s recent history against Dartmouth would make a betting men place his money on the boys from Hanover. For the past three years, the Big Green has defeated Harvard.

This losing streak includes the 2002 season, when Dartmouth’s 2-0 victory crushed Harvard’s hopes for an Ivy League title, which would have been its first since 1996.

“I guess they’ve had our number recently,” Williams said.

Saturday’s match-up will also give the Crimson some time to settle its lines. Though Harvard coach John Kerr benched some of his more marquee players—such as senior Jon Napper, junior Zack Chandis and sophomores Brian Charnock and Anthony Tornariti— against a similarly weak opponent in Holy Cross, the team insists that a typical starting front will be used against Dartmouth.

Last week against Princeton, Kerr didn’t play his usual starting forwards, freshman Matt Hoff and Charnock, until midway through the second half.

But perhaps of more interest in terms of personnel issues will be on the defensive side of things. While Williams, Captain Andrew Old and sophomore Will Craig have formed a solid core at the back line for Harvard’s 4-4-2 arrangement, a fourth has not been so easy to find. Junior Zack Chandis and seniors Ben Mottau and Andrew Necthem have all started at the right back position in the last three weeks.

“You know, I’m not really sure. That’s a good question,” Williams said when asked about the defensive situation. “I can’t really predict who will be starting, but whoever it’s going to be, I have full confidence in him.”

But Craig seemed more confident that Nechtem—who is typically a midfielder, but played admirably at the unfamiliar position in Harvard’s most recent contest against the Tigers—will get the starting nod from Kerr.

“Ben Mottau and Zach Chandis may step in, but my gut feeling is that Andy is going to play,” Craig said.

This match remains a must win for Harvard. With Brown’s win over Cornell on Saturday, the Crimson can no longer entertain Ivy title hopes, and with it, an automatic invite to the NCAA tournament. But if it manages to win out the remainder of its schedule, there is a chance it could receive one of the coveted at-large bids.

—Staff writer Evan R. Johnson can be reached at erjohns@fas.harvard.edu.