The Harvard women’s soccer team rallied from a halftime deficit to defeat Fairfield University, 2-1, on Tuesday afternoon.

After an exciting overtime win at Yale this past weekend, the Crimson (7-4, 2-0 Ivy) came back to Ohiri Field to take on the Stags (3-4-3, 1-1 MAAC) in a nonconference matchup. Despite going down 1-0 in the opening minutes, Harvard found its offensive rhythm in the second half, with two goals coming from sophomore Peyton Johnson, who is also a Crimson sports comper, and rookie Meg Casscells-Hamby.

“We were sluggish in the first half, for sure,” Harvard coach Ray Leone said.  “[The fact that we were] recovering from an emotional game [against the Bulldogs] showed up in the game.”

While the hosts appeared most dangerous in the opening minutes of the game, Fairfield grabbed an early lead thanks to forward Kasey Schulz’s tally.  Less than eight minutes into the game, a poor clearance by the Crimson defense found its way to Stags midfielder Nikki Stanton, who slipped the ball to Schulz outside the box.  Schulz’s low shot deflected off a Harvard defender and beat a diving freshman goalkeeper Cheta Emba.

The Crimson, who started the game with many of its regular starters on the bench, struggled to find an answer for the goal. Despite dominating possession of the ball in the midfield, Harvard did not create many offensive opportunities for the first 20 minutes of the game.

Johnson believed the timing of the game had something to do with the slow start.

“Playing on a weekday is always tough,” the midfielder said.  “Your mind is in a lot of different places, and it is hard to leave all of that across the river.”

But the Crimson went into halftime on a positive note.  Before the whistle blew, Johnson unleashed a 30-yard shot towards the top corner that Fairfield goalkeeper Kelly Boudreau had to tip against the crossbar.

After numerous halftime substitutions, Harvard was able to counter its slow start.  In the 54th minute of the game, co-captain Lindsey Kowal put a corner into the middle of the box, and Johnson headed low past Boudreau to tie the score.

Harvard had a chance to make it two goals in as many minutes when freshman midfielder Lauren Urke’s long cross flew high past sophomore midfielder Elizabeth Weisman’s head.

As rain clouds moved in and opened up over Ohiri Field, both teams attempted shots from distance to test the goalkeepers’ ability to handle the ball in the wet conditions. In one of these instances, Casscells-Hamby fired a shot right at Boudreau, who fumbled the ball.  Two Crimson forwards rushed to slide home the rebound, but Boudreau recovered quickly, and the score remained tied.

Casscells-Hamby would only have to wait five more minutes to beat Boudreau.

Kowal again took a corner that was cleared back to her on the wing, and her follow-up cross found Casscells-Hamby in the middle of the box.

The freshman volleyed the ball into the top of the goal to give Harvard the lead in the 66th minute.

“Lindsey serves a great corner,” Johnson said.  “It’s pretty nice when a center back has two assists on the day.”