Totman’s Goal Grounds Eagles in OT

Between Saturday’s Penn game and yesterday’s Boston College game, Harvard senior forward Beth Totman had lived through 208 minutes of scoreless soccer, and she finally had enough of it.

Eight minutes into yesterday’s overtime, Totman took a lateral feed from junior midfielder Katie Westfall, touched the ball right to evade a defender and turned on it at the 18 for the finish. With BC goaltender Kate Taylor coming out of the net, a forceful shot to the weak side was Totman’s only good option.

Unlike every player on either side of the ball in Harvard’s past two games, Totman made the necessary adjustment for the successful finish.

The ball hit the back corner of the net, the Harvard bench emptied and the BC defender who had fallen to the ground trying to catch up with Totman didn’t budge.

The victory over BC (7-6-1) snapped a four game nonconference losing streak for the Crimson (4-4-1, 1-0-1 Ivy). While Harvard felt it played well in the majority of those games, yesterday was the first time it could back up that claim with a win.

“We’ve been in a bunch of games like this and had it drop the other way for us,” said Harvard coach Tim Wheaton. “I think today we were just like, we’re not going to let that happen, and we stepped up and got a win.”

The person who Wheaton first mentioned as stepping up was Westfall, who was easily the most relieved person on the field to see Totman finish. Westfall had missed a penalty shot in the game’s final minute that would have sealed the victory in regulation.

The second her errant shot deflected off the right corner of the crossbar, Westfall stepped up her intensity.

“I figured I might as well lay it on the line if I just cost us the game,” she said.

Westfall, Totman and junior forward Joey Yenne all stepped up the attack in the final minute of regulation and carried the intensity though in overtime.

“Sometimes it’s just about grit. It’s not all about being a pretty soccer player. I think we showed that today,” Wheaton said.

Totman’s goal was set up as Yenne worked the ball in tight space at midfield to Westfall, who, under similar defensive pressure, delivered the primary assist.

“I missed the penalty shot, so I figured I might as well do something effective to end the game,” Westfall said.

Yenne, besides earning the secondary assist, also set up what could have been the game-winning penalty shot late in regulation. She received a long throw-in from junior back Caitlin Fisher down the left sideline, singlehandedly beat a slew of Eagle defenders, then drew the foul from the last defender inside the box.

Harvard dominated possession in the game and outshot the Eagles 15-6. BC never sustained any consistent offensive pressure through the course of the game, and didn’t force Crimson freshmen keepers Katie Shields and Maja Augustdottir to make many difficult saves. Shields’ save of a point-blank deflection off a corner kick stopped the closest touch the Eagles had.

Boston College earned more corner kicks than Harvard but too often wasted them by utilizing slow-to-develop short options, which ultimately weren’t any more effective than deep throw-ins. The Eagles wasted several fine crosses during the second half as well.

All-American midfielder Sarah Rahko was the Eagles’ most effective offensive weapon when she got the ball in the open field, but Harvard denied her room to work for most of the afternoon.

With the victory, the Eagles’ regional standing—once second only to Connecticut—has suddenly taken a turn for the worse now that they have fallen to Boston University and Harvard in recent weeks.

The Crimson, who fell out of the rankings due to its overall losing record, should climb back up.

Crucial regional games still remain for Harvard against BU and Connecticut, the Northeast’s best team. Those games would have been far less meaningful had Harvard sustained a negative result yesterday.

“There was a sense of urgency,” said Totman about the victory.

The hope among the Crimson is that goals will come easier in the future after yesterday’s dramatic finish.

“I think one of these games we’re going to come out and win like 7-0, because we’ve been knocking on the door for four games in a row now,” Westfall said. “We’ve been knocking on the door with perfect set-ups, but we’re just not getting the goals.”

Harvard’s next game is against perennial Ivy doormat Cornell at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. The Crimson has outscored the Big Red by a total of 11-1 in their last three meetings.

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.