Men's Soccer Plays Yale to Double OT Tie

With the ball floating in the air and just under 12 seconds left in the second overtime frame, it only seemed right it would find the back of the net after almost 110 minutes of crazy back and forth action between the Harvard and Yale men’s soccer teams.

As it found its way into a frantic Yale box, it was redirected towards goal by Crimson junior forward Christian Sady. But just like in the rest of the frame, Harvard was denied the game-winning goal as the ball hit the post and the referee called a foul as time expired to seal the game.

The sequence was part of a thrilling 3-3 draw between the Crimson (4-3-2, 0-0-1 Ivy) and the Bulldogs (1-3-2, 0-0-1), as both teams saw leads disappear in a back and forth affair that served as the Ancient Eight opener for both teams.

After falling behind 2-0 with 35 minutes to go, Harvard looked to have mounted a stunning comeback with three goals in the span of less than 20 minutes, but Yale pulled it back with just three minutes remaining in the second stanza, as Bulldog captain Henry Flugstad Clarke found the back of the net to even the score. Though both teams had close chances in overtime, neither was able to come away with the victory.

“We went down early which is always tough in these kinds of games but our intensity is very consistent” Sady said. “We’re fighters so we’re fortunate to come back into it but I’d like to have that one back.”

Despite coming out with high pressure and registering the first three shots of the game, Harvard continued its trend of falling behind when forward Kyle Kenagy’s goal gave Yale the lead. After a no-call for a penalty in the Yale box following the takedown of Crimson freshman forward Phillip Housen, the Bulldogs quickly counterattacked and gained a corner. Kenagy met the cross near the far post and sent it into the top left corner.

The lead doubled for the Bulldogs in the second frame, as Harvard junior Tyler Savitsky fluffed a ball from junior goalkeeper Kyle Parks, allowing Yale rookie John Leisman to send a shot from outside the area into the bottom right corner past a diving Parks.

“It’s a hard one,” Harvard coach Pieter Lehrer said. “We’re competing and we’re trying to get in a position where we score early but we keep putting ourselves in a spot where we’re not so we’ll look at it and make adjustments.”

It took just less than five minutes for Harvard to respond, as Sady sent a rocket towards Yale goalkeeper Kees Schipper. The sophomore was unable to control the ball, allowing senior forward Jake Freeman to tap in the rebound to bring the Crimson within one.

Senior defender Daniel Smith evened the scoreline in the 76th minute for Harvard, soaring into the box to head in the goal as Sady played facilitator once again.

“[Coming back] is very common for the guys,” Lehrer said. “They do that in training every day. They fight and compete regardless of the score, that part they’re not really phased as much, being down. They’ll continue to compete regardless of what the scoreboard is [and] it’s huge that they do that.”

The momentum continued for the Crimson less than two minutes later, as a missed tackle allowed Sady to collect the ball and initiate a rapid counterattack. With the Yale backline in disarray, the junior laid it off outside the box to freshman midfielder Matthew Glass, who cut back to get rid of his man before blasting the ball into the mesh to give Harvard the lead. Sady was credited with his third assist of the game, a career high for the junior.

With time winding down, the Crimson looked to close out the match and open Ivy League play with a victory but the Bulldogs had other plans. Off a long free kick played into the box, Kengay redirected the ball into the path of Flugstad-Clark, who beat the Harvard defenders in the air and headed it past Parks.

The two overtime periods presented various chances for both teams to take the lead. A miscommunication between Parks and the defense in the box allowed a routine ball to turn into a standing, close range header from Flugstad-Clark that hit the crossbar before going out, while Sady sent a shot just wide three seconds before the end of overtime.

In the second extra frame, the Crimson continued to pile the pressure offensively but were unable to find the back of the net. The last 30 seconds of the game proved particularly frustrating as junior midfielder Eric Gylling saw his close effort off a corner narrowly saved by Schipper before Sady’s last second shot hit the post.

Though the team was unable to pick up a vital Ancient Eight victory, it looks to regroup and pick up the win against a scrappy Cornell squad next weekend. With the Crimson sitting in a six way tie for first at one point along with favorites Princeton and Dartmouth, there is still plenty at stake for Lehrer’s men, who will look to improve on their performance.

“[We need] to have a good week of training, it starts there.” Sady said. “Like I said before, we just approach [Cornell] the same way we did today and I think we’ll come out on top…. Set pieces, we’ve got to focus on that and just staying consistent...if we do those two things we’ll be good to go.”

—Staff writer Julio Fierro can be reached at julio.fierro@thecrimson.com.