Against the Harvard men’s soccer team at Ohiri Field yesterday, the Holy Cross Crusaders faced three foes in one.

The Crimson (8-2, 3-0 Ivy) started off strong, seemed to disappear in the second half, then finally returned to form near game’s end and held on for a 1-0 win.

The Crimson was saved by senior forward and captain Nick Lenicheck, who scored the only goal with 15 minutes remaining in the match.

Holy Cross (5-4-1) managed only one shot in the first half against an utterly dominant Crimson side. Freshman keeper Jamie Roth was not required to make a save.

For his part, sophomore Holy Cross keeper Kevin Baker made three saves, as the Crimson offense fired seven shots in the first half but failed to score.

“They were sitting a lot guys behind the ball,” Lenicheck said. “We weren’t creating as much as we wanted to.”

The Crimson’s best chance in the first half came when sophomore striker Ladd Fritz, the Crimson’s leading scorer, charged into the crease on his own and unleashed a shot. Fritz, however, was robbed by Baker, who just got a piece of the shot to deflect it over the net.

Baker would finish with seven saves.

Roth, coming off four straight shutouts, aggravated a knee injury and was replaced at halftime by senior Dan Mejias.

At first, Mejias faced no more excitement in net than he did while on the bench, as Harvard kept the pressure on at the beginning of the second half.

On one play, freshmen striker Jeremy Truntzer was all alone, only to roll the ball just wide.

Four minutes later, Holy Cross found salvation in the goal post, stifling another Truntzer attempt.

“We didn’t execute our final pass [on scoring opportunities],” Harvard Coach John Kerr said. “That prevented us from scoring four or five goals.”

As it turned out, Mejias would face the brunt of the Crsudaers’ attack. After the two Truntzer near-misses, the Crusaders began what would be a relentless ten minute onslaught.

During that span, Holy Cross fired most of their 11 second-half shots, testing Mejias on several occasions.