Crimson Plays for Payback, Ivy Title

Last November, the Harvard men’s soccer team gazed across the field in disappointment as Penn celebrated a conference crown. Tomorrow afternoon, the Crimson will take the field in its season finale with the opportunity to clinch its thirteenth Ivy title and the chance to earn retribution against the team that shattered its title hopes last year.

“We have been waiting all year to play them,” junior forward Alex Chi said. “It’s a really big game for us.”

Last season in Philadelphia, Penn stole the Ancient Eight title and the accompanying automatic NCAA tournament bid from Harvard’s grasp when the ball trickled into the net past then-freshman goalkeeper Austin Harms in the fifth minute of overtime.

“It was rough seeing them celebrate,” Chi said. “It made our team want it even more.”

But this year has offered a fresh start.

“It’s a different team, different makeup, different mindset, but the same goals,” Crimson coach Jamie Clark said.

This time at home on Ohiri Field, No. 11 Harvard (12-3-1, 4-1-1 Ivy), the only nationally ranked Ivy team, will play Penn (6-7-3, 2-3-1), again with the title at stake. The Crimson controls its own destiny with a single point lead atop the standings on both Brown and Dartmouth, who play each other this week. As long as the Bears and Big Green do not tie, Harvard must defeat the Quakers on Saturday to clinch the conference.

Even though the Crimson has almost certainly assured itself a spot in the NCAA tournament with its season thus far, the team still wants to call itself league champion.

“It’s really important [to win the conference] because we were so close last year,” Chi said. “Winning the Ivy League will give us a much higher seed in the tournament.”

Thanks in part to Chi’s play last week, Harvard has the opportunity to control its own destiny and move up the NCAA tournament bracket. Against Columbia, it looked like the title chance was about to slip through the team’s fingertips with Harvard down a goal late in the second half. But freshman forward Brian Rogers brought the Crimson back and sent the game into an extra period with a goal in the 79th minute. In overtime, the momentum stayed on Harvard’s side, and with fewer than five minutes into the period, Chi scored to keep the Crimson’s championship hopes alive.

“It would have been a major disappointment and put a lot more pressure on us if we didn’t win last week,” Clark said. “It can be good to go through some adversity and fight from behind.”

Coming off last week’s victory, Harvard is looking for its first title since 2006. On Senior Day, the seniors will look to end their collegiate careers the same way they began them.

“That would be pretty special for us seniors,” co-captain Brain Grimm said. “It would be really nice to go out on top.”

While the seniors look to earn their second title, their coach is eyeing his first. In two seasons, Clark is poised to find himself at 10 conference victories in his first stint as a head coach.

“You want to get in the habit of winning things,” Clark said. “If we start getting in the habit of winning Ivy titles, that’s a good thing…but we have to win the first one to begin the habit.”

Offensively, the Crimson has 28 goals this season, averaging 1.75 per game on 15.2 shots. Penn, meanwhile, has managed only 22 goals—1.38 per game on an average of 12.8 shots. On the other side of the ball, Harvard’s defense has been spectacular this season, allowing only 13 goals (.81 per game), while the Quakers have almost doubled that number with 25 goals allowed (1.56 per game).

While these statistics paint a blanket picture of the Crimson’s dominance this season, the team has relied on a number of standout individuals to bolster its efforts. Harvard has seen stellar play from co-captain Andre Akpan and Rogers. Akpan is leading the team in goals with 11 and also has six assists. Rogers’ score last week was his sixth of the season, accompanied by his five assists.

But despite a Crimson roster full of talent, Penn remains the reigning Ivy co-champ, and will look to play the role of spoiler in Harvard’s season once again.

As far as the Crimson is concerned, it is Harvard’s turn to celebrate a championship on its own turf and leave its opponent disappointed.

“We talked before the season about how great it would be to win [the title] in front of the team that took it from us last year,” Chi said.

—Staff writer Eric Michel can be reached at emichel@fas.harvard.edu.