Women's Soccer Blanks Villanova in 3-0 Rout

Zero—that is the total shots on goal that the Harvard women’s soccer team allowed on Sunday against the Villanova Wildcats.

Under a breezy overcast day at Ohiri Field, the Crimson defeated Villanova, 3-0, on two goals and an assist from senior forward Midge Purce, to put a bow on its 2016 non-conference play. Harvard (5-3) wrapped up its non-conference schedule on a three-game winning streak ahead of its Ivy League opener at Penn.

Villanova (2-7) continues its slide, having now lost seven of its last eight.

“Since we started against UConn, we’ve improved in incremental ways, trying to play a complete game, and I think we did that today,” Harvard coach Chris Hamblin said. “We knew we had some tough games early in the schedule, but we’ve learned an awful lot from them.”

Purce, playing on her birthday, led the way for the Crimson offense, striking first on a header in the 42nd minute to give Harvard a 1-0 lead after a long scoreless half. Co-captain Bailey Gary played a highlight-reel cross into the left side that senior forward Karly Zlatic was able to head over to Purce.

“Bailey played a great ball from deep, and Karly did the work to put it across the face of the goal, which is hard to do,” Purce said. “I just happened to get there at the right time.”

The star senior continued to provide chances right out of the gate in the second half, firing a cross into the left side that sophomore Leah Mohammadi powered into the net off of a defender.

“Leah scored her second goal of the year today from a midfield position, and that’s what we’ve been encouraging them to do,” Hamblin said. “We look at both sides of the ball—we want them to be defending hard but also get involved with the attack…I’m really happy with the way our team shape is connecting, and how we’re having midfield players make offensive contributions.”

With Villanova’s offense stifled, the field was essentially shortened for the Crimson to play with. Senior forward Rachel Garcia drew a free kick just outside the penalty box in the 65th minute, and Purce capped her day by converting the kick off the top of the crossbar, cementing the game at 3-0.

Still, complementing Purce’s offensive rampage was a defensive shutdown that allowed just seven shots and none on goal.

“We’ve been focusing on our defending since preseason, and today was a very good team defensive performance,” Hamblin said. “If we do a good job with our forwards and our midfielders, it’s going to limit the opportunities that [Villanova] will have. When they did get into the final third, our defenders did a really good job keeping them at bay.”

Freshman goalie Kat Hess had an uneventful time during her first career start between the pipes. Neither her, nor senior goalie Lizzie Durack, who came on for the second half, were tasked with making a save.

Gary kept it simple when explaining Harvard’s defensive success.

“It’s always one of our goals to limit chances, limit opportunities, so we try to focus on that as much as we can,” Gary said. “If they have fewer chances, they’ll have fewer goals.”

Freshman forward Ida DiClemente led Villanova’s offense with three of her team’s seven shots. In net for the Wildcats, junior goalie Emily Harris tallied three saves and three goals allowed in her full 90 minutes of work.

Given how well the home team worked on both sides of the ball, the Crimson’s search for a “complete game” seems to have been fulfilled for the time being.

“We’re in a good place,” said Hamblin. “We’re looking forward to Penn, who’s had some good results, and it’ll, of course, be a good challenge on the road.”

—Bryan Hu can be reached at bhu01@college.harvard.edu