Purce-Garcia Combo Stars as Women's Soccer Ties BU, 2-2

On Tuesday night, the Harvard women’s soccer team took a break from its Ivy League slate to take on Boston University at Jordan Field.

Although the matchup had no conference implications—and although the Crimson didn’t even come up with the victory—Harvard (7-3-2, 2-0-1 Ivy) turned in one of the best performances of the season, peppering the Terriers (4-10-1, 4-1-0 Patriot) with 27 shots en route to a 2-2 tie in double overtime.

“We really took the game to Boston University and created numerous chances,” head coach Chris Hamblin said. “The result isn’t necessarily what we wanted it to be—but the performance was fantastic, one of our better performances of the year.”

The Midge Purce-Rachel Garcia connection was on full display on Tuesday night, as Garcia assisted Purce on a through ball in the 48th minute, which was then followed by Purce’s assist to Garcia in the 67th minute to complete the Crimson’s scoring.

The two senior forwards have been offensive producers all season long. Purce now has an Ivy-leading 10 goals and three assists on the year, while Garcia moves to three goals and three assists.

The most outstanding features of the home team’s performance, however, were the ease with which Harvard twice erased one-goal deficits and then went on to dominate the overtime periods without allowing a single shot.

“Although we went down on two occasions today, I always felt that we were the favorite team to win the game,” Hamblin said. “That’s the way the players believed and played.”

The Terriers got on the board first with a 20th-minute goal from freshman forward Kelly Park. After Purce tied the game in the 48th minute, the visitors regained the 2-1 lead in the 64th minute off a set-piece goal by freshman defender Shannon Keefe.

The Crimson responded quickly by knotting the game back up at two goals apiece less than four minutes later.

“Over the last few weeks, I think we’ve proven that we can go down a goal, and we don’t get flustered,” Hamblin said. “I don’t think it really impacts us. We don’t overanalyze it—we just go in and keep doing our job.”

The home team’s momentum carried into the overtime periods, in which it outshot BU 8-0. Despite the constant pressure, and despite the several game-winning opportunities that Harvard created in overtime, the Crimson couldn’t get over the final hump.

“I think [overtime] was a testament to the group’s desire to go on and win the game,” Hamblin said. “Obviously, at that point, both teams are tired, but our players showed that we wanted it.”

Purce ended up outshooting the entire BU team, as she tallied 14 shots over the Terriers’ collective 11.

On the BU side, the team was credited with two team saves, as position players twice cleared the ball off the goal line to keep the visitors alive. With help from her team, Terrier senior goalkeeper Bridget Conway continued her shutout streak, in which she hasn’t allowed a goal since a Bucknell matchup on September 18, five games ago.

With Harvard’s primary and senior goalie Lizzie Durack resting, sophomore Danielle Etzel made five saves and was credited with the tie. Freshman Kat Hess came on for the second half and also manned the pipes during both overtimes.

The Crimson also took 12 corner shots in comparison to BU’s two. Harvard benefited from contributions from every individual—even those without regular playing time—in its final non-conference game.

“We wanted to give players the opportunity to step in today and show what they can do,” Hamblin said. “We really didn’t miss a beat. I was really proud of the entire group today.”

The Crimson has played two double-overtime draws in a row to add to its seven-game unbeaten streak. Harvard now travels to Brown on Saturday, its third game in the span of a week.

With Columbia playing a nonconference game on Tuesday night as well, Harvard stands pat at two points behind Columbia atop the Ivy League standings with four games left on the schedule. Purce, Durack, Garcia, and the rest of the senior class will be searching for their third title in four years.

—Staff writer Bryan Hu can be reached at bhu01@college.harvard.edu. Staff writer George Hu can be reached at yianshenhu@college.harvard.edu.