The story could not have unfolded better.

The Harvard men's soccer team opened the second half with a 1-0 lead. A victory would not only hand Dartmouth (8-2-3, 4-0-1 Ivy) its first Ivy loss of the year, but also set up a possible showdown at Brown next week for the Ivy League Championship. The Crimson were dominating the play.

Then it all came unraveled as Dartmouth exploded for three goals in the second half to hand the Crimson (6-5-9, 2-2-2) its second and most critical Ivy loss of the year. The defeat takes Harvard out of contention for first place.

"The loss is incredibly disappointing", said junior goaltender Jordan Dupuis, "If we would have won we would have entered the Brown game with the possibility of a title."

With just one minute remaining in the second half and the score deadlocked at 2-2, Chris Dedicik of Dartmouth got the ball and took off for the net. Nobody could maintain their footing on the rain-soaked field, and Dedicik dribbled past four Crimson players before burying the game winning shot.

"We just could not make the little adjustments on the wet field," said sophomore Ryan Keeton, "He slipped through. It was very unlucky."

Regardless of luck, the Big Green capitalized on the Crimson's brief lapse in the second half. It scored two goals within a span of 30 seconds to take the 2-1 lead.

Dedicik tied up the game at one when he converted on a cross at 65:41. Eighteen seconds later, Chris Pedrick put Dartmouth on top, beating Dupuis on a one-on-one situation.

"We pretty much blew it," said Keeton, "We had two breakdowns and they burned us."

Despite the Dartmouth onrush in the second half, the Crimson was still in position to win the game with 10 minutes remaining. Captain Tom McLaughlin continued his brilliant play by converting on a free kick at 80:03. This knotted the game at two and setup the dramatic finish.

"We feel bad, especially for seniors like Tom," Keeton said. "This was their last chance to win a championship and we gave the game away."

The contest grew decidedly tougher in the second half. Dartmouth not only turned up the offense, but also the physical play. This all coming despite playing part of the second half with a man down after Brendan Reidy drew a red card for illegally tackling Keeton.

Both teams, however, were victimized by the referee's whistle.

Dartmouth's Bobby Meyer and Harvard's Andrew Lundquist each received yellow cards in the first half, while junior sweeper Lee Williams sat out the game, serving a one game suspension for too many cards.

"We didn't change our game in the second half," said sophomore Will Hench. "They just became tougher and we gave them a lot of free headers."