Big Green Edged by Harvard at Burnham, 1-0

Saturday, October 29

Hanover, N.H.

4:30 PM

Dartmouth College

Harvard

10/29/2016 6:47:00 PM | Men's Soccer

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – In a hard fought game at Burnham Field between the Ivy League's top two teams, the Dartmouth men's soccer team fell, 1-0 to rival Harvard on Saturday evening.

With the loss, the Big Green are now 5-4-5 overall, 3-1-1 in conference play, while the Crimson improve to 10-3-2 overall, 4-0-1 in league play.

Both squads headed into Saturday's contest knowing the victor would gain the upper hand in the race for the Ivy League title with just two games remaining in Ancient Eight play for both schools.

Dartmouth outshot Harvard by a 7-6 margin, but the Big Green were able to dictate play for the majority of the contest, playing the ball with a lot of speed.

“I'm really proud of the team's performance,” Bobby Clark Head Coach of Men's Soccer, Chad Riley said. “Credit to Harvard they got the result. They're a very good team and I think they battled well. I think we made enough chances to win the game. They defended well and I'm proud of the whole week we trained. We have three games left and if we keep fighting I think we'll extend our season.”

The teams combined for five shots in the first half as each side tried to find its footing on offense. After the halftime break, Dartmouth came out with plenty of energy to try and get the all-important first strike.

Just two minutes into the second stanza, Jonathan Nierenberg missed on a wide open net with a shot that went wide to the right. Later in the period, Nierenberg had another golden opportunity to put his team ahead, but missed an open net by less than a foot.

Early in the 79th minute, the Crimson scored the only goal of the contest when Sam Brown blasted a shot from about 20 yards out that found the back of the net.

Trialing by a goal, the Big Green did not relent and fought with urgency, but could not get the equalizer before the final whistle sounded.

Despite the loss, Dartmouth is still alive in the race for its third consecutive league championship, with games against Cornell and Brown. Meanwhile Harvard will face Columbia and Penn in its final two games of the regular season.

“I think everybody is in it until you're not,” Riley said. “At this time of the year you just want to be competing and you want to be in that rhythm. I love this group and I think every time we've been challenged we've responded, so I expect a good response.”

Before finishing their Ivy League slate, the Big Green will take on Northeastern on Nov. 1 at 6 p.m. in Dartmouth's final non conference match of the regular season.