But the Quakers missed the power of defending Ivy Rookie of the Year Kerry Scalora, who suffered an injury last weekend against George Mason. Without Scalora—who has scored five goals this season—the Crimson back line stayed tight letting its offense respond with 11 shots of its own in the last 45 minutes.

For Harvard’s captains and coach, what showed the most progress was how eight Crimson players took shots against the defending Ivy champs, tallying up 16 total for Harvard.

“It’s a testament to the depth of our team. We have a lot of different players who can play in multiple positions,” Baskind said. “It’s awesome this year. Every single person who has started has started for a reason because they bring something to the table.”

“The people coming off the bench have been fantastic,” Baskind added. “At this point, we’ve got 20-plus players who have real game experience, which is awesome going into league play.”

The Crimson backline’s strips and saves helped out freshmen goalkeepers Cheta Emba and Kanten in their first Ivy appearances. Emba played the first half saving one shot on goal, while Kanten appeared the second half making three saves.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen, but the [freshmen in goal] were calm, cool, collected, and communicative so I was really pleased with their performance,” Leone said.

Harvard hopes to continue the momentum as it prepares for its match-up against Yale next weekend.

“Yale is definitely on our minds,” Baskind said. “It’s Harvard-Yale—enough said.”

—Staff writer Alex Sopko can be reached at sopko@fas.harvard.edu.