Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, Sept 17
Harvard 1, Boston College 1 (OT)

Two fifteen minute sudden death overtime periods followed regulation play.

Game Report

The men's team was lucky to have as many players get on the bus on their as they did: this was a p-h-y-s-i-c-a-l game, the tone set early by a lenient Roger Taylor, the legendary referee who has done NCAA championship games in 1994 and 1995, and the semis in 1996.  We like Roger.   Really.  But today things got out of hand--both ways.  Harvard had no choice but to try to match Boston College's hard tackles.  Combine that with the field's condition (BC rents is out to football fans who like to park near the stadium @ $900 per season, which, as I learned in Economics 10, enhances BC's GDP equivalent, but in turn creates a sub-par field) and you get the drift of what went on today.

It took BC 6 minutes to get on the scoreboard, on a nice, high cross from the left that freshman Kevin Boyd headed into the upper right hand corner.  He's 6-3 and agile, the ball was high, and it was placed perfectly.   Nothing you could do to stop that once the cross was made.  Harvard equalized the match at the 31 minute mark, on a Wyant-McLaughlin combination to Zack Viders, who was in the middle and drilled it home.  On that very play Viders was viciously if ineffectively tackled, and got seriously hurt, leaving the game for the hospital with a broken collarbone.  This is a bad loss for the Crimson, who need depth (who doesn't?).  In addition, Ryan Kelly, the freshman who played well against Penn, had left the game earlier. He got a knee in his side on the first play of the game, and may be out for a while with a hip pointer. Two guys you don't want to loose.

The overtimes were better soccer, even if the boys were tired on each side.  Each team had chances to end the sudden death periods, including another header by Eagle Boyd that went off the crossbar in the 109th minute.  Late in the second period Juan Carlos Montoy (who played well today) offered a tasty corner kick that threaded its way through a crowd, with nobody to collect.

Paul Cantagallo and Chinezi Chijioke raised the level of their game today, both playing tough defensively and moving the ball well.  Chinezi has got a throw-in that created several great opportunities today; I am sure we will see more of it, and see the Crimson capitalize on them more often.  Drew Lundquist played sweeper, with Lee Williams still out, and also did well in that role.
/glh

Team records:
Harvard:   0-1-1
Boston College:   1-3-1

Scoring
BC: Boyd, 6:00; H: Viders (McLaughlin, Wyant), 31:00

Season stats

Complete stats will be posted as soon as they are made available