The Stanford Cardinal is breathing a collective sigh of relief after narrowly escaping Cambridge with a 1-0 overtime victory over Harvard in the Crimson's season opener yesterday at Ohiri Field. STANFORD  1 HARVARD  0

Harvard hung with No. 8 Stanford for the first 100 minutes of the game thanks to senior goalkeeper Jordan Dupuis, who made huge plays for Harvard (0-1) throughout regulation to keep the Cardinal (3-1) off the scoreboard. He had six saves and did not let Stanford convert any of its nine corner kicks into goals.

But the key to the Crimson's defense was its experienced backfield, consisting of captain Andrew Lundquist, senior Lee Williams and junior Chris Rollins, who did most of the ball handling for Harvard as the Cardinal struggled to get good shots.

"We are very confident in our back four and in our goalkeeper," Williams said. "Our defense played very well today, but a one-nil loss in overtime is always disappointing."

"I thought our boys fought really hard and defended really well," Harvard Coach Steve Locker said. "They did a very admirable job in not giving up any goals throughout regulation. This was only our first game, but we need to do a better job of getting good shots for ourselves on the offensive end."

While the fullbacks' nifty footwork shut down the Cardinal, it helped blank the Crimson as well. The Crimson struggled to advance the ball downfield and only managed to take six shots on goal. Stanford goalie Lex Bayer needed only one save to record the shutout.

"Going into overtime we felt that it was our game and that we weren't in any danger," Stanford captain A.J. Sauer said. "We didn't think Harvard was going to score on us so at least we would get a tie, and we are happy any time we can tie or beat a good team on the road."

Sauer won the game for the Cardinal 10 minutes into the overtime period when he found himself all alone on the right side of the goal box. Dupuis charged the Cardinal forward in desperation, but Sauer punched the ball by him for the victory.

"When [Cardinal midfielder] Simon Elliott dribbled downfield, [Harvard] stepped up to push us offsides, but they stepped up too late and Simon found me open and I just kicked it in," Sauer said.

Despite a heartbreaking loss in the season opener, Harvard played well against a top-10 team. The Crimson played three freshmen forwards (Nick Lenicheck, Michael Peller, and Marko Soldo), and Harvard is hoping its young offense improves as the season unfolds.

"We seemed to get more aggressive downfield as the game developed," Williams said. "Our defense is solid, and hopefully our offense will gain confidence and score more goals in the next few weeks." STANFORD, 1-0 (OT) at Ohiri Field Stanford  0  0  1  -  4 Harvard  0  0  0  -  0

Scoring Stanford--Sauer (Elliott) 100:40. Saves: Stanford--Zapala 1; Harvard--Dupuis 6.