Men's Soccer Ties in Ivy Showdown with Brown

For the first time since September, the Harvard men’s soccer team (8-3-1, 2-0-1 Ivy) left the pitch without a win Saturday in its 1-1 tie at Brown (3-4-5, 1-1-1). The Crimson scored first on a 16th minute goal by junior Tim Schmoll, but a 49th minute equalizer by Bears forward Ben Maurey provided the final margin.

“I thought that the guys certainly competed and fought hard,” Harvard coach Pieter Lehrer said. “We played very well in the first half, [but] we didn’t get the same rhythm we usually did in the second half. Brown did well.”

For the third straight game, the Harvard offense struggled to find its form following nonconference play. The team had just six shots on goal on the day, bringing its total to 16 in three Ivy League games after notching 95 in nine nonconference games. The team has just three goals in Ancient Eight action after registering three or more in each of the five games before its league opener against Yale.

“The Ivy League is very competitive and every game matters, so it’s very much like a playoff game for every team,” Lehrer said. “Every kick, every throw-in matters. There are less opportunities for everyone in every game, and that happens across the Ivy League.”

The Crimson generated those opportunities with aplomb early. It started with a shot by junior Michael Klain in the third minute that Bears goalie Mitch Kupstas swatted away. Twelve minutes later, co-captain Kyle Henderson found the biggest body on the field—the 6’6” Schmoll—in the middle of the pitch for the opening score of the game.

“It was a great goal for the whole team,” Henderson said. “I think eight to ten players probably touched the ball on all the movement leading up to the goal, which is great.”

For the rest of the half, the defense kept Brown scoreless. The Bears did not register a shot until the 42nd minute, when a header by Gabe Welp went wide of the goal. Riding into intermission with its scoreless streak at 389 minutes, the defense was following the same script that had led Harvard to two straight 1-0 nonconference victories.

The streak never reached 400, however, as the Bears took care of their first opportunity of the second half to tie the game. After drawing a corner kick, Jack Gorab crossed the ball to an open Maurey, who finished the chance to become the first Ivy League player to score on junior goalkeeper Evan Mendez in 316 minutes.

Maurey nearly won the game for his team two minutes later, missing a shot wide. The Bears rattled off three more shots in the next 12 minutes, keeping Mendez on his heels in goal. The junior stood tall all half, saving two shots in the final eight minutes of the half and breaking up another Gorab corner kick in the 90th minute.

“He’s been fantastic at organizing and getting the best out of the players around him,” Lehrer said. “He communicates really well to them, and he goes over things with them they are struggling with and works out with them…. They know and trust that his information is good and what he says is in the best interest of the team.”

In the overtime period, both teams struggled to generate offense. The teams recorded a combined one shot in the first overtime and missed three of five shots in the second period wide. It was Harvard’s third overtime game of the season and its first draw.

“One hundred and ten minutes of soccer is a lot of soccer,” Henderson said. “But [with the result], we’ve put ourselves in a great spot, and now it’s about just going out and continuing to get better because we’re going to have to get better every game.”

—Jake Meagher contributed reporting to this story.

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twtter at @CrimsonDPFreed.