Freshman forward Connor McCarthy tallied his first career goal last night, scoring the Harvard men’s soccer team’s only goal in it’s 1-0 win over Holy Cross.

Career firsts are always special, something an athlete will remember for the rest of his or her life. But when those firsts are the difference in a team’s win, they become even more meaningful.

Playing without injured leading scorer Brian Rogers, the Harvard men’s soccer team knew someone would need to step up on the offensive end. What the team might not have expected was that the spark would come from a freshman.

But despite playing only 52 minutes in the game, Connor McCarthy was ready when opportunity knocked.

After his team struggled to get anything going offensively in the opening half, the freshman forward’s first career collegiate goal in the 47th minute would prove to be all the Crimson (4-3-3) needed in its 1-0 victory over Holy Cross (3-6-1) last night.

“It was almost a relief, to be honest,” McCarthy said of the goal. “I’ve just been waiting for it to happen...it’s a decent amount of weight off my shoulders. I hope after the first one, I can push on to score a couple more for us.”

McCarthy’s first career score was enough on the offensive end because of the stellar goaltending of sophomore goalie Brett Conrad, who recorded his first career shutout in the contest despite playing in a low-temperature, heavy-rain environment.

“I thought it was a well-played game,” Conrad said. “It was tough conditions, but our team had set a goal going in that we were going to get a shutout regardless of whether we scored or not.”

“The win is nice, but to set a goal as a team, and then meet it the way we did, is something we’re all pretty proud of,” McCarthy added.

Neither squad was able to manage much offense in the first period, taking only three shots apiece. Crusader forward Kevin O’Connell managed the only attempt on goal, which Conrad saved.

But early in the second half, Harvard made the most of a rare opportunity.  Freshman midfielder Kyle Henderson took a pass from McCarthy and cued it back to him on the left side of the net. McCarthy took the ball and kicked a slow roller past Holy Cross goalie Evan Polanik to give the Crimson the 1-0 lead. It was Henderson’s team-leading third assist on the season.

“Obviously, [losing Rogers is] hard for a team, since he’s our big scoring threat,” Conrad said. “But a couple of freshmen really stepped up...it’s great to see them show the team they can play.”

The Crusaders had a chance to even things up in the second half, attempting two shots on goal, but Conrad made saves on both to keep his shutout alive.

“It’s great to know as an offense that if we get one goal, that’s basically it,” McCarthy said. “Our defense was stellar tonight.”

Harvard managed only two attempts on net in the contest, both by McCarthy. Sophomore forward Scott Prozeller had three shots to lead Harvard. Midfielder Matt Beckley paced Holy Cross with two.

Yet, despite the lack of attempts on goal, McCarthy said he was encouraged by the offense’s ability to create opportunities in Rogers’ absence.

“Brian’s a special player,” the freshman remarked. “Not having [him] hurts us, but our team is strong enough that we can definitely play through it...you just try different things. We’re not looking for Brian as much if he’s not there, so other guys get a chance on the ball, and other guys can do some special things with it and we end up creating just as many chances.”

Conrad, making his second start of the year in place of junior Austin Harms, made three saves in the victory.

The goalie attributed much of his success to the defense that let up only six total shots in front of him, saying the co-captain duo of Rob Millock and Jaren LaGreca was an especially big help to a keeper making just his third career start.

“Both those guys bring so much leadership to the field,” Conrad said. “I feel so confident back there with those guys in front of me.”

It was the second consecutive 1-0 shutout for the Crimson, playing its final non-conference tune-up before heading to Providence Saturday evening to take on No. 13 Brown in a pivotal Ivy contest.

“I feel good [about the first career shutout],” Conrad said. “I put a lot of work into it, but at the end of the day it’s more about the team’s success. I’m ecstatic that we pulled out our second victory in a row, and our second shutout in a row, so this really gives us momentum going into our Ivy League contest on Saturday.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.