During the course of a season there are several games that a team can point to as being crucial to the overall success of their year.
The Big Green men's soccer team suited up for one of these very games on Saturday, when it traveled to Cambridge to take on Harvard. Unfortunately the Big Green found themselves overmatched against a strong Crimson squad as they suffered a 2-0 defeat.
Harvard entered the contest ranked number nine in NSCAA national poll and had suffered just one loss on the season. With the loss, Dartmouth fell to 6-7-1 overall (2-2-1 Ivy).
"They were definitely the strongest team we've played this year," Keith Zadourian '98 said. "In order to win, we knew we were going to have to play with at least as much intensity as we did against Cornell."
That intensity was not there, however, in the early going. With just 5:29 gone in the first half Harvard drew first blood. The Crimson's Tom McLauglin fired a shot from left side that beat keeper Matt Nyman '99, but rang off post. Harvard's Will Kohler was right there to put in the rebound and put the Crimson ahead to stay.
"We've had problems giving up early goals this year," Zadourian said. "It just puts us in a huge hole and it's hard to recover from."
Harvard finally put the nail in the coffin with 1:10 remaining in regulation, when Richard Wilmot took an indirect kick from Will Kohler and deposited the ball in the back of the net.
The loss effectively drops the Big Green from contention for the Ivy League title, but that doesn't mean that the rest of their games are meaningless.
"We definitely want to have a winning season," Zadourian said. "If we can play well in our last two league games, we'll earn some respect from the other teams in the league and that's always important."
Dartmouth is back in action next Sunday when the Big Green host Columbia. Game time is at 12 p.m.
