WORCESTER--It was a match that reaffirmed one's faith in the law of averages.

After thoroughly outplaying an inferior Holy Cross squad for the better part of an afternoon, the Harvard men's soccer team needed two overtime sessions to dispatch the Crusaders (4-6-1, 2-1-1 Patriot) by a 2-1 count at Hart Center Field on Saturday. HARVARD  2 HOLY CROSS  1

Junior midfielder Armando Petruccelli tallied the game-winner in the 108th minute off a rebound of sophomore back Wells Mangrum's shot and also had an assist in the second half as the Crimson (4-5-1, 2-2 Ivy) posted its fourth win in five games. Petruccelli's shot was Harvard's 14th of the afternoon, and Holy Cross only managed five.

"I don't even want to venture how frustrating it would have been [to tie]," Harvard Coach Steve Locker said. "It's frustrating enough that we didn't bury this team more quickly."

Petruccelli, who leads the team in scoring with five goals, corralled the rebound of Mangrum's shot 15 yards in front of the net and drove a low shot past Holy Cross senior keeper Jeff Colon, finalizing a win the Crimson could have had much earlier.

"Realistically, I never felt that we were in danger of losing this game," senior keeper Jordan Dupuis said. "Anytime you get a win, it's good, even though the manner in which we got this win was not the came sliding in and pushed the ball into thegoal as Northeastern goalkeeper Cindy Cochrancharged her and landed on top of her.

"It finally fell for us," Miller said. "Wereally picked it up and put the ball in the backof the net."

Less than five minutes after Miller's tally,the Crimson struck again. Senior back AshleyMarynick sent a corner kick into the box where itwas knocked around by several players.

The ball came off Miller's head to juniorforward Beth Zotter past the far post. Zotterbacked down her defender and sent a shot on goalwith the back of her foot, giving Harvard a 2-0advantage.

The Crimson was obviously in the zone, becausethe scoring did not end there. In the 26th minute,freshman midfielder Jenine Ghani sent a nice ballup the right sideline where Stauffer chased itdown.

The All-American did her thing once again,beating one defender and rushing toward the net.Stauffer waited for Cochran to charge and thenbeat the goal-keeper low to the far post.

"We were obviously excited to score a lot ofgoals; it's something we haven't done all season,"Stauffer said. "Lots of times when you playagainst a team that's not as good as you, you tendto play down to their level. I thought we did agood job keeping our intensity up."

The score remained 3-0 until halftime, and withthe game well in hand, Harvard saved its mostattractive goals for the second half. The firstcame at the 57:20 mark courtesy of Berman.

The Portland, Or. native controlled the ballnear midfield and began her run at the net asWheaton yelled, "Have it, Ash Berman." She obligedher coach and fired a shot over Cochran to the farpost from 25 yards out to the upper corner of thenet.

Stewart, however, would not be out-done. In the82nd minute of play, Stewart sent a direct kickfrom just outside the 18-yard box over a wall ofNortheastern defenders. The ball curled back outand made its way inside the near post forHarvard's final tally.

"I think one of our problems has been thatwe've had lots of opportunities, but we haven'tbeen able to put many of them away early," Bermansaid. "After [Miller] scored, I think it gave therest of us a lot confidence."