In the 102nd minute, Princeton headed in a well-placed cross from the left to win the game, shocking the Parents’ Day crowd and handing Harvard its first Ivy League defeat.
“We knew it was going to be a set piece that won it,” Clark said. “In the first [overtime], we created quite a few chances, and they made the most of their chances in the second overtime period.”
Set pieces have been a problem for the Crimson the whole season. While Harvard has the physical potential to be a dominant team in the air, it has only scored one goal all year from a set piece.
For a team that was 5-1 in one-goal games, the failure under pressure was uncharacteristic.
“[If] you play enough close games…you lose some,” Clark said. “Odds are if you go into overtime enough times, you’re not going to win them all, and that’s our reality right now.”
That reality leaves the Crimson in a must-win situation against Dartmouth next weekend.
“We need to really start preparing for Dartmouth, thinking about Dartmouth, not dwelling on this loss but keeping this in the back of our minds,” Nyamekye said. “We’re going to train hard this week.”