Round Three Awaits

Perseverance may have helped Harvard men’s soccer take the lead against the Monmouth Hawks, but the Crimson’s talent killed them off.

One scrappy goal—and two well-executed ones—handed 10th-seeded Harvard a 3-0 win over Monmouth (18-2-2) yesterday on Ohiri Field, moving the Crimson into next Sunday’s third round of the NCAA Tournament.

Despite the lopsided scoreline, the victory did not come easily.

“For the most part it was a 1-0 game, and a few moments of brilliance separated the game,” Harvard coach Jamie Clark said. “I thought that was the only difference between the two teams.”

The two vital plays came in the game’s final minutes.

With the Crimson (14-3-1) up 1-0 with 14 minutes left to play, sophomore Tim Linden won back possession on the left side of midfield. Linden played the ball up to the feet of co-captain Andre Akpan—recently named the Ivy League Player of the Year—who one-touched it back to freshman Scott Prozeller. The rookie then sent the ball through to freshman Brian Rogers, who was streaking down the left sideline. Rogers was brought down, but the ball fell into Akpan’s path, leading the referee to allow the advantage. Akpan ran at the Hawks defense before firing the ball into the back of the net with his left foot to double Harvard’s lead. The beautiful team goal was Akpan’s 47th of his career, moving him into first place on the Crimson’s all-time list, alongside Chris Ohiri ’64.

Eight minutes later, sophomore Jamie Rees was fouled a few yards outside the box. Senior Adam Rousmaniere curled the free kick around the wall and into the bottom right corner of the net to assure Harvard of a spot in the Tournament’s Sweet 16.

“[Rousmaniere] said ‘leave it, let me put it in,’” Akpan said. “And he did—he hit it perfectly right into the corner.”

The match was billed as a showdown between two of the nation’s best defenses, but in its final two tallies, the Crimson displayed its ability to create goals as well. Harvard’s potent attack will need to be on its game next week when the Crimson faces Maryland—the defending national champion—on Sunday.

With that game scheduled over Thanksgiving break, Harvard may have a tough time matching the 1,312 fans that were in attendance for the win over Monmouth. The Hawks brought a large contingent of their own to Cambridge, and the opposing sets of fans were going at each other for much of the game.

And the same could be said of the players on the field.

The early minutes of the game were absent of any significant scoring opportunities, but they did display a biting ferocity from both teams.

“It was two teams butting heads from the beginning,” Akpan said. “I’m pretty confident in the physicality of our team, and it showed today.”

Harvard may have been handed a better seed in the tournament, but Monmouth was ranked higher in the NSCAA/adidas National Rankings. The Hawks finished the season at No. 5, while the Crimson was No. 9.

And if results against common opponents were any indication of what was to come, Monmouth had to feel pretty good about its chances. The Hawks came into the game fresh off its first-round, penalty-shootout win over a UConn team that had crushed Harvard, 4-0, earlier in the year.

Monmouth also gained nonconference victories over Princeton and Cornell, whereas the Crimson fared much worse against those Ivy League rivals, losing and tying, respectively.

The physical nature of the match seemed to dictate play early, with neither team able to create chances.

“I actually thought Monmouth was a little bit sharper—maybe because they played the first game and had [any nervousness] out of their system,” Clark said. “But we settled after 15 minutes, and I think we started looking really good.”

Harvard started to take control as the half wore down, and in the 30th minute, it took the lead.

Rousmaniere took a Crimson corner on the left side, sending the ball into senior Kwaku Nyamekye at the far post. The All-Ivy First Team defender then headed back across goal to freshman Richard Smith, whose shot hit the crossbar. Junior midfielder Alex Chi—who was given an All-Ivy honorable mention this week—got in on the action, and his attempt looked to take a deflection before hitting the crossbar as well.

But Harvard was not to be denied in the goal-mouth scramble, as Smith popped up once again for his second goal of the season. The big defender is making a habit of scoring key goals for his team. The first tally of his career came last week in a 1-0 win against Penn and gave the Crimson the Ivy League title and a first-round bye in the Tournament.

“We do work a lot at set pieces, and I try to contribute as much as possible to the team,” Smith said.

“[Akpan and Smith] will win their share of stuff in the air, and then you add [Nyamekye] in there, and there aren’t many teams that can match it,” Clark said. “And then there’s a little bit of desire to pick up second balls and finish them.”

With its season on the line, the Hawks pushed hard for an equalizer in the second half. In the 67th minute, Monmouth stringed together a few good passes, but Anthony Vasquez’s back-post header cannoned off the crossbar.

In the 75th minute, Nyamekye came inches away from scoring off a header from a Harvard corner. But Hawks’ keeper Bryan Meredith pulled off a great save to keep Monmouth in the contest.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, a minute later, the Crimson put together the best move of the match to go up 2-0.

Rousmaniere’s free-kick goal in the 85th minute was the icing on the cake for Harvard, which will now have to turn its attention to Maryland.

In Sunday’s game against the Terrapins, Akpan will look to set the goalscoring record in what will likely be his final game on Ohiri Field. But his goal yesterday helped the Crimson reach the third round—something that Akpan had failed to do in his first three years at school—and the striker is focused solely on prolonging his collegiate career.

“Hopefully I can continue to score goals in my life, but this is my last chance to make it far in the Tournament, so that’s what I‘m looking for,” Akpan said.

—Staff writer Jay M. Cohen can be reached at jaycohen@fas.harvard.edu.