Don’t look now, but the Harvard men’s soccer team is making a late season push for post-season play.

After battling inconsistency for much of the season, the Crimson turned in its third dominating performance in a row yesterday afternoon at Providence, beating the Friars (6-9-2) 2-0.

With the victory, Harvard (8-4-3, 2-2-1 Ivy) extended its winning streak and remained in contention for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Harvard has outscored its opponents 8-1 in beating Princeton (2-0 on Oct. 25), Dartmouth (4-1 on Saturday) and Providence.

In all three victories, Harvard has burst out of the gate, outplaying the opposition from the start.

“We controlled the game pretty much from the beginning,” junior Zach Chandis said. “We came out strong and took care of business.”

But despite dominating the first half—outshooting the Friars 8-2—the Crimson only led 1-0 at the break.

Freshman forward Charles Altchek changed all that early in the second half. In the sixth minute of the second frame, senior Andrew Nechtem found Altchek with a cross in front of the net, which Altchek headed into the back of the goal for his third tally of the season.

Altchek, who now has two goals and an assist in his last two games, has teamed up with forward Matt Hoff to create a dynamic freshman duo.

“Hoff and Charles do a great job up top creating offense for us,” Nechtem said. “There are a bunch of freshmen on this team with a lot of talent.”

It was a veteran, however, who got Harvard on the board early in the game.

In the 16th minute, senior midfielder Kevin Ara deflected a corner kick from Nechtem directly to senior Ladd Fritz, who beat Friar goalie Chris Konopka to give Harvard a 1-0 lead. The Crimson has taken the lead in the first 23 minutes in each game of its winning streak.

Harvard sophomore goaltender Ryan Johnson recorded his second shutout in three games, though he can credit much of his success to the Crimson’s outstanding defense.

Chandis and captain Andrew Old kept the Providence offense in check throughout the game. The Friars rarely had a quality scoring opportunity, and Johnson only had to make three saves all game.

“Chandis and Andy Old controlled the middle of the field the entire way,” Nechtem said. “The defense really played well throughout.”