M. Soccer Suffers 4-1 Loss at Hartford

Last year, when the Harvard men’s soccer team gave up four goals to Hartford, it still managed to pull off a two-goal victory.

This season, however, surrendering that many scores translated into a three-goal defeat, as the Crimson (1-1-2) dropped its first contest of the year, 4-1, to the Hawks (5-3-1) on Saturday night.

Sophomore Anthony Tornaritis provided Harvard’s lone tally with an unassisted goal at the 78:37 mark.

Tornaritis scored off of a failed Hartford clear, ending both the Hawks’ four-goal run and a 105-minute scoring drought for the Crimson.

“The defender made a mistake,” sophomore defender Will Craig said. “Tony was just in the right place at the right time and made a real heads-up play.”

The Hawks’ Alon Lubezky proved particularly potent against a battered Crimson defense, scoring two goals and assisting on a third. The junior forward was last week’s American East Player of the Week and leads Hartford with 17 points—10 ahead of Kenniel Martin.

“They had a really good player [Lubezky] on top,” freshman forward Matt Hoff said.

Three of the Hawk goals came in the second half, as Hartford provided a scoring bonanza similar to the 2002 match, which featured seven second-half goals.

“[That’s a] little much,” Craig said. “Its a bit of an anomaly. I don’t know how it happened.”

Given the state of Harvard’s goaltending corps, three second-half goals might not be all that bad.

Against Hartford, junior Jamie Roth—who was the go-to goalie last year—got his first start of the season in spite of a groin injury he has been nursing all year. The injury is expected to keep him out of Wednesday’s matchup against Maine.

“Because of his groin, Jamie’s movement was kind of limited—especially his lateral movement,” Craig said.

Currently, sophomore Ryan Johnson— who is still feeling the effects of shoulder and calf injuries—is expected to get the starting nod on Wednesday.

Johnson replaced junior Conrad Jones—who had started Harvard’s first three games—after Jones aggravated his back last week against Fairfield.

As a result of this string of injuries to the goalies, Crimson coach John Kerr has called up freshman Jim Treadway—who had been trying out for the junior varsity squad as recently as Wednesday—to the varsity. But Treadway was unable to make it to the Hartford game because he has still not been cleared for varsity play by the NCAA.

The Crimson hosts Maine on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. The Black Bears [3-3-1] are coming off a 1-1 tie against Dartmouth on Saturday.

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