The Crimson had another great opportunity in the 71st minute. Junior Chinezi Chijoke took a pass five feet from the goal, but his ensuing shot went high, keeping Harvard off the scoreboard.
The Huskies capitalized again with 10 minutes left in the game. Freshman midfielder Mike Donnelly took a corner kick from fellow freshman Ben Collins, and scored Northeastern's third goal, which would turn out to be the game-winner.
Even down 3-0, Harvard showed no signs of giving up or giving in. The Crimson countered with its first goal four minutes later on a beautifully executed offensive sequence. Freshman forward Marco Soldo got the ball on the left side of the goal and tapped it to Smolen. Smolen expertly slipped the ball back to Soldo, who blasted it past Husky goalie Alan Lewis.
"It was certainly a big relief for me, because I hadn't scored yet this year," Soldo said. "This was the moment I waited for. But, to score a goal at 0-3 with only four minutes left is almost worthless, so it was not as good as a first goal could have been."
Harvard, although obviously inspired, did not have enough time to tie the game.
But it would score once more. After a handball in the box, junior midfielder Armando Petruccelli converted the penalty kick with 16 seconds remaining on the clock. Petruccelli, with four goals and an assist, is the Crimson's leading scorer.
"This was a key game that would have brought us back to .500 overall," Soldo said. "This ended our three-game winning streak, and the talk of ending the season with 11 straight wins. We'll have to get back on track if we want to make it to the NCAAs...One good thing was that some of the freshmen who haven't played all year made it onto the field and made a solid contribution to the team. It was great that Dan [Cantagallo] and Yoshi [Kaneko] got to play."
Harvard will go to Holy Cross this weekend for a non-league game. The next league match will be at Princeton, October 24. The Crimson return home October 28 to play Fairfield. Scoring N.E.--Djurdjevic 1 (unassisted) 22:26. N.E.--Djurdjevic 2 (Hainsworth) 61:26. N.E.--Donnelly 1 (Collins) 81:13. Har--Soldo 1 (Smolen) 86:11. Har--Petruccelli 1 (penalty kick) 89:44. Saves: Har--Dupuis 4; N.E.--Lewis 10.