Monmouth also gained nonconference victories over Princeton and Cornell, whereas the Crimson fared much worse against those Ivy League rivals, losing and tying, respectively.

The physical nature of the match seemed to dictate play early, with neither team able to create chances.

“I actually thought Monmouth was a little bit sharper—maybe because they played the first game and had [any nervousness] out of their system,” Clark said. “But we settled after 15 minutes, and I think we started looking really good.”

Harvard started to take control as the half wore down, and in the 30th minute, it took the lead.

Rousmaniere took a Crimson corner on the left side, sending the ball into senior Kwaku Nyamekye at the far post. The All-Ivy First Team defender then headed back across goal to freshman Richard Smith, whose shot hit the crossbar. Junior midfielder Alex Chi—who was given an All-Ivy honorable mention this week—got in on the action, and his attempt looked to take a deflection before hitting the crossbar as well.

But Harvard was not to be denied in the goal-mouth scramble, as Smith popped up once again for his second goal of the season. The big defender is making a habit of scoring key goals for his team. The first tally of his career came last week in a 1-0 win against Penn and gave the Crimson the Ivy League title and a first-round bye in the Tournament.

“We do work a lot at set pieces, and I try to contribute as much as possible to the team,” Smith said.

“[Akpan and Smith] will win their share of stuff in the air, and then you add [Nyamekye] in there, and there aren’t many teams that can match it,” Clark said. “And then there’s a little bit of desire to pick up second balls and finish them.”

With its season on the line, the Hawks pushed hard for an equalizer in the second half. In the 67th minute, Monmouth stringed together a few good passes, but Anthony Vasquez’s back-post header cannoned off the crossbar.

In the 75th minute, Nyamekye came inches away from scoring off a header from a Harvard corner. But Hawks’ keeper Bryan Meredith pulled off a great save to keep Monmouth in the contest.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, a minute later, the Crimson put together the best move of the match to go up 2-0.

Rousmaniere’s free-kick goal in the 85th minute was the icing on the cake for Harvard, which will now have to turn its attention to Maryland.

In Sunday’s game against the Terrapins, Akpan will look to set the goalscoring record in what will likely be his final game on Ohiri Field. But his goal yesterday helped the Crimson reach the third round—something that Akpan had failed to do in his first three years at school—and the striker is focused solely on prolonging his collegiate career.

“Hopefully I can continue to score goals in my life, but this is my last chance to make it far in the Tournament, so that’s what I‘m looking for,” Akpan said.

—Staff writer Jay M. Cohen can be reached at jaycohen@fas.harvard.edu.