Crimson Lets Lead Slip Away, Loses to BC

The Harvard men's soccer team's opponent Tuesday afternoon was the No. 18 BC Eagles, and based on the way the game went, BC could have just as well stood for "bevy of chances" as "Boston College."

After taking a second-half lead, the Crimson (4-4-5) was unable to withstand the offensive barrage produced by the Eagles (7-2-4), falling 2-1 in a game in which sophomore goaltender Brett Conrad was forced to make seven saves and the Eagles fired 16 shots.

“I thought there were two good soccer teams playing today,” Harvard coach Carl Junot said. “From our standpoint, it’s disappointing to give up a lead, but I think there’s a lot of quality in Boston College’s team.”

The early part of the first half was equally paced with a lot of back-and-forth, but things soon started to pick up. Eagle midfielder Amit Aburmad had the first look on goal 12:30 into the game, when he took a pass at the right of the net and kicked a ground ball, but Conrad made a diving save to his right.

Soon after, Aburmad took another wide-open look but missed wide again.

Later, BC midfielder Kyle Bekker sent a corner kick on net that Conrad bobbled, putting the Crimson defense in a dangerous situation before it was finally able to clear.

At 42:55, Conrad came out of the goalie box to try to break up a one-on-one, and after a collision ensued, the keeper was penalized.  But a wall of Harvard defenders denied the resulting free kick taken by Eagle Conor Fitzpatrick.

A minute later, Eagle midfielder Colin Murphy had an open look, but shot it right at Conrad, who deflected the ball over the net, allowing Harvard to escape a scoreless first half despite four BC shots on goal.

“Conrad did well,” Junot said. “I think he was pretty consistent between the pipes.”

In the second half, it was the Crimson’s turn to come out showing some offensive firepower.

Harvard had a great scoring opportunity 4:28 into the period, when sophomore midfielder Brian Rogers—who left the game early in the first half after getting drilled in the face by a ball but returned in the second half—beat his defender down the left endline and sent a pass in front of the net to teammate Connor McCarthy.  The freshman had a great look, but BC keeper Justin Luthy made a diving deflection to his left, and after a scrum in front of the goal, the Eagles were able to clear.

“Brian had a great run on that, and I completely screwed up on it,” McCarthy said.

But McCarthy got redemption two minutes later when senior midfielder Shomesh Chaudhuri sent him a cross from the right side, and McCarthy kicked a ground ball past a diving Luthy to give Harvard the 1-0 advantage.

“Shomesh just played a really good ball, and in the end, it was an easy finish,” McCarthy said. “A lot of the work was done for me.”

But from that point on, it was all Eagles offensively.

At 58:15, Eagle forward Charlie Rugg had Conrad exposed one-on-one in the goalie box, but his ensuing shot hit the post.  Three minutes later Eagle defenseman Patrick Chin took a long outlet pass from Aburmad and sent a cross to Bekker, who took the kick from five yards out and put it into the right corner of the net to tie the game at one.

BC had another great opportunity with a two-on-one, yet Conrad was able to make a diving stop to his right on a Rugg shot to keep the game tied.

But the Eagles eventually found their way to the goal. At 66:44, Aburmad beat Conrad on a free kick to the left corner of the goal, giving the Eagles a 2-1 advantage it would not surrender.

“We really only let our guard down for like 10 minutes,” McCarthy said. “They got both goals in those 10 minutes, and it was tough to battle back.”

The Crimson wasn’t able to register any great chances the rest of the way, losing its first game in five contests and its final non-conference match.

“I thought we let up a bit after [our] goal,” McCarthy said. “We just didn’t keep our pressure high enough, and they’re a really good team, so when you don’t keep 100% focus on defense, they’ll hurt you. And they did.”

Harvard’s offense, for its part, managed 13 shots after struggling to get pressure on net in recent weeks.

“That was one of our goals this game,” Junot said. “We told ourselves before the game, the result wasn’t as important as the performance, being able to create more attack opportunities, and we did that.  So there are some positives to the game.”

“It’s a testament to Coach Junot,” McCarthy added.  “He switched up the formation, made it a bit more attacking.  Thanks to that move by him, we made some more chances...we’ll look to build off it in the Ivy League games.”

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