All Bark, No Bite: Men’s Soccer Drops Cross-River Contest to Terriers

Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro may boast a 97 percent chance of victory in the upcoming gubernatorial election, but his namesake in Cambridge cannot say the same for his men’s soccer team.

Across the Charles River at Nickerson Field, the Harvard men’s soccer team (1-4-1) came up short in a 2-1 loss to the Boston University Terriers (3-2-3, 2-0 Patriot League), in a one-sided fixture that was far from what the score suggested.

The Crimson fell behind the eight ball early, conceding two goals to the Terriers in the first half before getting on the scoreboard in the dying embers of the game.

From the opening whistle, BU was the more fluid squad, completing passes at a higher clip and creating turnovers. Harvard struggled to generate chances upfield, as Terrier defenders consistently double-teamed the Crimson’s ball carriers.

After a fortunate miss from BU sophomore midfielder Pharis Petrica outside the box, Harvard’s backline eventually succumbed to the Terriers’ pressure. In a chaotic sequence, Crimson sophomore goalkeeper Jason Broome saved an initial flurry before BU senior forward Andrea di Blasio snuck in a header to make it 1-0.

Tensions boiled over when the host’s keeper Ben Alexander made an aggressive play to secure the ball before Harvard sophomore forward Adam Poliakov made unnecessary contact, resulting in a yellow card for the Crimson’s star player. Coach Shapiro’s men were docked for three yellows in the match, compared to their opponent’s one – as the team continued to defend with physicality.

Despite the card, Poliakov tallied Harvard’s first shot of the game 19 minutes in, sending a header wide off a cross. Including Poliakov, Harvard ran a five-forward lineup, though it was largely to no avail, as offense did not come easily throughout. The Terriers led handily in every attacking stat: shots were 20-12, shots on goal were 10-3, and corners were 9-3.

BU’s offensive onslaught eventually paid off: with less than two minutes remaining in the half, sophomore defender Anthony Harper found himself unmarked and connected well on an inswinging corner, doubling the home side’s lead to 2-0 as the sides headed for the break.

While the Crimson stopped the bleeding in the second half, Harvard’s offense kept sputtering. Its best opportunity came when senior forward Yuta Hata’s shot deflected to fellow forward and captain Dylan Tellado, but the latter’s attempt was blocked by a sliding tackle from a Terriers defender. A later attempt from junior midfielder Xavier Tanyi shattered off the crossbar, keeping Harvard’s tab closed as the home side continued to press.

Meanwhile, the hungry Terriers continued to put pressure, forcing Broome to make two heroic saves in the 58th and 66th minutes. The shot-stopper continued to rescue the Crimson as he recorded eight saves, establishing a career-high.

With mere seconds on the clock, the Crimson was gifted its final chance to capitalize: a free kick from the halfway line. Pushing all men forward, senior midfielder Ben Kelly’s long delivery found Tanyi, who tapped it into the congested box.

Surrounded by disorder and defenders, the ball came to freshman midfielder Gil de Souza, who clipped the ball perfectly and rocketed it into the net on a successive second touch — breaking BU’s streak of four straight clean sheets. The goal proved to be pure consolation, however, as just milliseconds after, the horn blew to draw the match under the floodlights to an anticlimactic close.

Tuesday’s loss marks the Crimson’s fifth consecutive match without a victory – and the Terriers’ first win on home turf against Harvard since 2019.

The Crimson will now trek into Upstate New York to kick off its Ivy League conference play against the RV Cornell Big Red (3-2) in Ithaca, before concluding its non-conference schedule against the Northeastern Huskies (4-2-2, 1-1-1 CAA) in neighboring Brookline, Mass.

—Staff writer Kai I. Russell can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Jason Deng can be reached at [email protected].