When the Crimson opened the scoring under the lights of Reese Stadium against Yale in 2013, Harvard men’s soccer coach Pieter Lehrer appeared to be well on his way to a win in his Ivy League coaching debut up a goal with less than five minutes to play.
But with two unanswered scores, the Bulldogs played spoiler, handing Lehrer the first conference loss of his Crimson tenure.
As of Saturday night, Yale skipper Kylie Stannard now has a story to match.
Coaching in his first career Ancient Eight matchup, Stannard watched his side jump out to an early edge just seven minutes into the game. But three unanswered Harvard goals, including a deciding header from senior forward Jake Freeman, lifted the Crimson (2-4-2, 1-0-0 Ivy) to a 3-1 victory over the Bulldogs (1-7-0, 0-1-0) at Reese Stadium.
With the score even at one in the 63rd minute, Freeman put the finishing touch on an attack which saw eight Harvard players touch the ball in less than 30 seconds. After the flurry of passes, senior midfielder Michael Klain broke free from his defender on the right wing, giving him room to launch a cross into the box.
Seeing the separation, Freeman crashed the net, and Klain dipped a cross in his direction toward the near post. From there, Freeman lowered his head and tucked the ball just inside the pipe, leaving rookie goaltender Kees Schipper with no time to react.
“Jake’s run was superb,” senior striker Tim Schmoll said. “Jake’s absolutely stepped up big time as a leader on this team. He’s very calm and poised on the field. He really is someone who doesn’t let the context of the game get to him and just knows what he’s good at. And that was textbook Jake, that goal.”
Freeman aggravated his knee on the play, forcing him to leave the game. But not before the senior got a chance to celebrate—karate-kicking the corner flag in the aftermath of the game-winner.
“My whole leg went numb,” Freeman said. “But my adrenaline kind of just took me. I had to celebrate.”
Without Freeman—as well as co-captain defenseman Mark Ashby, who has missed all eight games this season due to injury, the Crimson managed to stave off any chance of a Yale comeback, holding the hosts to just one shot on net in the second half.
Harvard sealed the deal with 1:32 remaining. Waiting for a long ball to land inside the box, senior forward Oliver White barreled into the extended left leg of Bulldog captain defender Philip Piper, sending both players crashing to the ground.
The collision prompted the referee to point to the spot. Schmoll then stepped up and drilled the penalty into the bottom left corner of the net to cap a two-goal win—marking the first time in eight years that the two sides have been separated by more than one goal.
Yale got out to a near-perfect start, finding the back of the net off sophomore midfielder Archie Kinnane’s corner kick under seven minutes in. Kinnane drove a pass on the ground to junior midfielder Henry Albrecht inside the box, who sent his first touch to space, where only rookie midfielder Nicky Downs could get to it.
On his first touch, Downs curled a shot from the top of the 18-yard box into the top right corner of the net for his first career goal off what Schmoll called a “well-crafted set piece.”
“It wasn’t something that we had seen them do, so I think we were a bit taken aback by that certainly,” Schmoll said. “But it did not change our game plan whatsoever.”
The Bulldogs’ lead lasted for less than seven minutes, as Freeman also helped produce the Crimson’s equalizer. Getting his head on a Schipper goal kick, Freeman sent the ball right back in the keeper’s direction, prompting him to vacate his net in pursuit of the ball.
But with White attacking hard, the ball never ended up reaching Schipper. Piper tried to poke a pass to his keeper, but the ball slid right past him and into the net, marking the beginning of a night to forget for the Yale captain and a night to remember for Freeman.
Staff writer Jake Meagher can be reached at jake.meagher@thecrimson.com.
