Women's Soccer Ends in Tie at BU

It has been two years since a soccer game between Harvard and Boston University has finished in regulation, and it will now be even longer. Just like the men’s team two weeks prior, the Harvard women’s soccer team found itself in an overtime bout with the Terriers.

In the end, neither side could pull away, as the two teams played to a tightly contested 1-1 draw.

“It was a really good game,” Crimson coach Ray Leone said. ” I mean BU’s a fantastic team, so it was an incredibly competitive battle—just a physical battle.”

Harvard (6-3-2) knew that it was in for a battle when the team took the field at Nickerson Field Tuesday night. The Terriers (8-3-2) have yet to lose a game on their own turf this season. In fact, BU had yet to surrender a goal at Nickerson all season. The last opponent to score on the road against the Terriers was Albany, back on Sept. 23 of last season.

That streak came to an end on Tuesday night by way of the foot of a Crimson freshman. In the 28th minute, with the Terriers leading 1-0, the Crimson launched a quick counter-attack. Junior midfielder Meg Casscells-Hamby sprinted up the left wing and sent a through ball to freshman forward Midge Purce.

Purce took the ball up to the left side of the box before fooling a BU defender with a cutback move.

From the edge of the box, Pierce looked like she was about to send a short cross in front. However, she fooled the BU defender once again with another cutback—this time to the left—before moving towards the goal line. Utilizing the open space, Pierce launched a shot on the ground that snuck inside the left post past sprawling BU keeper Andrea Green.

The equalizing goal was the seventh of the season for the freshman and could not have come at a better time for Harvard, as the Terriers had been dominant to that point.

For the first 30 minutes of the match, BU held a strong advantage in possession as they thoroughly controlled play on Harvard’s side of the pitch.

Twelve minutes into the game, the Terriers got on the scoreboard when senior midfielder Megan McGoldrick found herself in the right place at the right time.

After the ball squirted out from a scrum of players on the left side of the penalty area, McGoldrick earned an open look at the net from the middle of the box. With plenty of time to shoot, McGoldrick picked the top right corner, leaving Crimson goalkeeper Lizzie Durack with no chance to make a save.

“I think we just have to learn that those things are going to happen,” Harvard senior co-captain Elizabeth Weisman said. “Sometimes you get in rhythms, and they had a rhythm in the beginning.

The Terriers went into the break leading the Crimson in shots 8-3.

Harvard certainly rebounded in the second half and the overtime periods, though, as the team began to hold BU while creating its own attacks. However, in the end, there were very few scoring opportunities for either side as the game went on.

“They just locked in,” Leone said of his team. “They defended really hard and tried to catch [BU] on counters, and we had some opportunities, [but] BU defended them really well. They didn’t give us many looks, that’s for sure.”

Holding the Terriers’ offense to one goal was no easy task. BU launched 13 shots over the course of the game, but Durack and junior goalkeeper Cheta Emba, who split time in net, stood their ground.

However, it was the Crimson defense, led by senior co-captain Peyton Johnson, that truly secured the draw for Harvard.

“They were rock,” Leone said. “They had to absorb so many things—all the set pieces, the corner kicks, the flow of the play. The back line was unbelievable. So I’m really proud of how hard they played and how together they played.”

The Terriers earned eight corners and eight free kicks, but each one was staved off by the Crimson back line. Harvard did especially well to shut down BU forward Madison Clemons, who was named Patriot League Player of the Week after scoring three goals this past week. She finished with four shots—none on goal.

With the tie, the Crimson extends its unbeaten streak to eight games.

“I think it’s awesome showing them on their own field that we have what it takes, and [that] we are able to compete with them and show them that we’re good this year,” Weisman said. “We have great depth and great players, and we really wanted it today, so we showed that.”