Men's Soccer Falls Short in Comeback Against Princeton

A furious comeback attempt fell short for the Harvard men’s soccer team (8-4-1, 2-1-1 Ivy) on Saturday in its 3-2 loss to the host Princeton Tigers (7-3-3, 2-1-1). It was the team’s first loss since a Sept. 13 defeat at the hands of St. John’s, 2-1, and ended the Crimson’s nine-game unbeaten streak.

“All credit to Princeton, they did a really good job,” junior co-captain Mark Ashby said. “They were able to exploit our defense a lot, and ended up finishing quite a few.”

The Crimson was shut out for the first sixty minutes of action as the Tigers sprinted out to a 3-0 lead, the first time this season Harvard faced a deficit that large. Princeton struggled to generate chances early before a penalty in the Crimson’s third gave Brendan McSherry a free kick opportunity. McSherry knocked in a laser from just outside the box.

Three minutes later, the Tigers went down a man when Thomas Sanner was given a red card. But Princeton pressed forward, undeterred.

Set pieces proved to be Harvard’s undoing again just before the half, when the team committed a penalty in the box to set the Tigers up with a penalty kick opportunity. Cameron Porter converted to set the hosts up 2-0 heading into halftime.

“After they made the PK and the free kick—both good goals—we were behind a bit,” coach Pieter Lehrer said. “A couple of the goals were terrific efforts on their part.”

Porter extended its lead to three goals just four minutes after the break, taking advantage of a failed Harvard clear. The Crimson suffocated the Tiger offense from that point forward—Princeton had just one shot on goal—but the damage had been done.

“They had too many chances in the first half of the game,” co-captain Kyle Henderson said. “It was a game where they finished their chances and we left some on the table.”

Down 3-0, the Crimson offense woke up. Harvard fired off three shots in quick succession starting in the 55th minute. On the fourth it cut the deficit to two, with freshman Christian Sady taking a pass from streaking sophomore Andrew Wheeler-Omiunu and beating Princeton keeper Ben Hummel for his first goal of the season.

Harvard would control the game from that point forward, but struggled to get the two goals it needed. Two offside penalties in three minutes halted the momentum, and the Crimson was unable to generate a shot for 15 consecutive minutes in the middle of the frame. It wasn’t until the 80th minute, when junior forward Tim Schmoll drew a foul in the box—a yellow card on Greg Seifert—and netted the ensuing kick, that Harvard drew within a goal.

“We were in a tough spot and had to fight back and had some phenomenal chances to tie it,” Lehrer said. “They guys fought hard but we didn’t convert it.”

The last ten minutes of the game were frantic, with a Harvard squad up a man and seeking the equalizing goal. The importance of the game—with the win, Princeton knocked Harvard from its perch atop the Ivy League to a tie with the Tigers for second—weighed on the outcome.

The Crimson fired off three shots in the final minutes, but could not convert. Sady had two shots ninety seconds apart with three minutes to go, but Hummel knocked both away.

Afterwards, Lehrer rued the missed chances, confident that the team could have completed the comeback if it had been able to finish one of its final chances.

“We kept creating chances and had a lot of chances to tie and go ahead,” Lehrer said. “The guys fought hard but we didn’t convert it. Had we scored that tying goal, I think we win that game.”

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