The varsity soccer team evened its season record at 1-1 by notching a 5-2 win over a feisty Wesleyan University squad yersteday at the Business School field.
Sophomore Lee Nelson led a swarming Crimson offense, blasting two goals past hapless Wesleyan goaltender, Dan Burgioni, and assisting on a third tally.
Team captain Fred Herold stunned the Wesleyan offensive with a spectacular performance in the Harvard goal. Herold corralled 13 shots on goal, three of which were drilled from point-blank range.
The Crimson booters played tight-passing soccer in the first half, but Wesleyan initiated the scoring as Oren Schlieman poked a dribbling shot past Herold during a scramble in front of the net, at 4:35.
At 21:20 into the first half Nelson drilled Harvard's first score, when the Crimson were awarded an indirect kick inside the penalty area. Junior standout Matt Bowyer tapped the ball to Nelson, who knocked it past the wall of Wesleyan defenders and goalie Burgioni to make the count Harvard 1, Weslevan 1.
Nelson supplied the Crimson with a 2-1 advantage at 29:20, placing a breakaway shot into the lower left hand corner of the goal. Freshman Walter Diaz, from Dix Hills, N.Y., headed the ball to Nelson who sprinted to the goal uncontested.
"It was a through ball in the air to Walter[Diaz] and he headed it perfectly to me," Nelson said yesterday.
Scoring
Bowyer pumped Harvard's lead to 3-1, capitalizing on a Wesleyan defensive error 20 feet in front of the goal mouth. Bowyer, who performed as a midfielder his freshman and sophomore years, followed the play from his right wing position and booted a left-footed shot into the goal.
Nelson, a speedy, ever-present offensive threat against Wesleyan, chipped a loose ball off the opponent's crossbar. Diaz, alertly trailing the play, trapped the rebound and cooly blazed a bomb by Burgioni, putting the Crimson comfortably ahead, 4-1.
Wesleyan started the second half playing fired-up soccer. Offensively, the visitors began to apply pressure, but Herold and fullbacks Lorenzo diBonaventura, Jim Langton and John Sanacore skillfully countered with a tough style of defense.
Herold played the angles in the goal with such fortitude that Wesleyan's nifty offense found itself staring at the Crimson goaltenders' chest most of the game. However, at 20:20 of the second half, Jonathan Brewne took a rebound off that same chest and found the net for Wesleyan's second score.
Senior Rob Carey scored Harvard's fifth goal with 25 seconds remaining in the game to add a sparkling finish to the Crimson's first victory of this young season.
Read more in Sports
Grapplers Man-Handle Panthers 34-2; Nine Victories Highlight Season OpenerRecommended Articles
-
Crimson Soccer Teams Draw at WilliamstownThe Harvard soccer team is positively incestuous. The Crimson kissed its sister for the third time in four outings yesterday,
-
Opening Win Suits Crimson Booters Just FineThere they were, in bold black figures on a white background--foot-high digits on the Business School soccer field scoreboard Wednesday,
-
Booters Romp over Elis, 6-1 in Season FinaleNEW HAVEN - The Crimson booters affixed an exclamation mark to the end of their season with a 6-1 rout
-
Varsity Soccer Triumphs Despite Injured StartersMIDDLETOWN, Conn., Nov. 14--The varsity soccer team, slipped, slid, and fought its way to a 3-2 upset victory over Wesleyan
-
Crimson Booters Tame Lions, 2-1; Nelson Sparks Rusty Harvard OffenseIt was just not a good day for the Columbia soccer team Saturday. To begin with, the Lions' sky-blue flag
-
The Second Championship Game.Harvard won her second championship game on Saturday defeating Wesleyan at Hampden park, Springfield, by a score of sixty-seven to