Lack of Scoring Touch Plagues Crimson

The latest road game for the Harvard men’s soccer team turned out to be a disappointing finish to a rather lackluster weekend.

On Friday night at Soliders Field Soccer/Lacrosse Stadium, the Crimson (2-3) barely edged out UMass (1-6) in overtime, 1-0, before falling to Vermont (5-1) by the same score in Sunday afternoon’s away matchup.

Despite the plethora of offensive opportunities and well-constructed build-up plays in both games this weekend, Harvard lacked that final spark of ingenuity in front of the goal.

“Goals are hard to come by for us right now,” Crimson coach Carl Junot said. “It’s that final piece of quality that we are looking for.”

But in the eyes of junior forward Brian Rogers, the final piece in the Crimson offense may not be all that difficult to find.

“Like anything in sports, sometimes a bit of luck and a bit of momentum is needed to put you over the edge,” Rogers said. “I think that one of these next few games, we are going to have a real offensive explosion, in which a bunch of those shots do go in. From there you’ll see our confidence go up, and then we’ll hopefully be shooting at a better percentage.”

VERMONT 1, HARVARD 0

Playing in Burlington, Vt., on Sunday afternoon, the Harvard men’s soccer team was aggressive in its offensive third of the field. But as has been the case so far this season, the Crimson’s failure to capitalize on its scoring opportunities led to a second straight away defeat.

The Catamounts attained the lone score of the match late in the second half, thanks to a long throw-in by junior defender Sean Sweeney that found the head of senior Yannick Lewis.

With a little more than five minutes to play in the match, Lewis’ header made the difference in the otherwise evenly-contested game.

“That was a pretty frustrating game in that we lost,” Rogers said. “Vermont is a tough place to play. The field is sloppy, and it’s a pretty rowdy environment, but it could have gone either way.”

Despite a losing effort, the Crimson kept up with Vermont statistically for much of the game, but ran out of steam late in the second half. For the game, the Catamounts edged Harvard in shots, 10-8, and in corner kicks, 6-4.

“Overall it was a pretty evenly-matched game, and I think that they earned the win well with the throw-in,” Junot said.

HARVARD 1, UMASS 0

Although UMass made the home-side work hard for the victory, in the end, the Crimson escaped with a win after a game-winning penalty kick in overtime by junior co-captain Scott Prozeller, 1-0.

Playing under the lights for the second time this season at the Soldiers Field Soccer/Lacrosse Stadium, Harvard began the game by dictating the pace of play and pressing deep into Minutemen territory. By the 18th minute of play, the Crimson had mustered three shots on goal and two corner kicks, and looked poised to score at any moment.

At 22:36, with freshman Michael Innocenzi driving towards the goal, UMass conceded a penalty to the Crimson after rookie Michael Innocenzi was tripped up by a Minuteman defender just inside the penalty area. When junior Brian Rogers stepped up to take his first penalty kick of the season, Harvard seemed assured of its first goal. But Rogers kicked the ball wide right, keeping the game scoreless.

But despite the penalty miss, Harvard showed no signs of letting up offensively. At the end of the first half, the Crimson continually challenged the UMass backline and outshot the visitors, 6-0.

Throughout the second half, the Crimson continued to look confident and threatened the Minutemen on a regular basis, but getting a shot by the goalkeeper proved to be a difficult task. With the match still scoreless after regulation play, the game moved into overtime.

Two minutes into overtime with the Minutemen pressing into the Harvard penalty box, senior goalkeeper Austin Harms made a crucial save off a header to deny UMass of what could have been a game-winning goal.

Less than five minutes later, the Crimson secured a game-winning opportunity of its own after Innocenzi was once again cut down inside the box, giving the home-side a chance to score.

Stepping up to the penalty spot this time was Prozeller, who confidently buried the ball into the top-left corner of the net, granting Harvard the victory.

The Crimson pick up play again next weekend on the road against Stanford and Santa Clara.

—Staff writer Oluwatoni A. Campbell can be reached at oluwatoni.campbell@college.harvard.edu.