With its back against the wall, the Dartmouth men's soccer team came through with a big victory Saturday night, beating No. 17 Harvard University, 1-0, in Hanover.
Needing a victory to keep its Ivy Leagues hopes alive, the Big Green came out strong against a Harvard team riding a six-game winning streak. After 76 minutes of scoreless play, rookie forward Maarten van Ess '12 sealed the game with 12 minutes remaining on his second goal of the year.
Dartmouth's head coach Jeff Cook was not willing to say that his team's season was on the line Saturday, but he conceded that it was a victory the team needed.
"It feels like our backs have been against the wall for a while," Cook said. "It was important for a lot of reasons -- perhaps most important for the confidence of the team. We've been playing well, so we needed to reenforce that with tangible results."
The win moved the Big Green (8-5-1, 3-1-1 Ivy) into third place in the Ivy League. Despite the loss, Harvard (9-4-0, 4-1-0 Ivy) maintained its position atop the league standings along with No. 23 Penn.
Dartmouth started the game on Saturday looking to put the contest away early but could not get past a vaunted Harvard defense that had allowed only two goals during its six-game win streak. Despite a 7-2 shot advantage that still left the Big Green scoreless at the half, Cook felt his team was playing a high level of soccer.
"Particularly in the first half, we were excellent," Cook said. "We came out with confidence and moved the ball quickly. We knew it wasn't going to be easy to get chances against their defense. But I thought we moved the ball well and controlled the tempo."
The second half saw both teams come out and treat the fans at Burnham Field to an intense and physical 45 minutes of soccer, as both sides looked for the game winner.
Dartmouth finally broke through when van Ess took a pass from Big Green co-captain Craig Henderson '09 and took a shot at the net. Harvard goalkeeper Austin Harms got his hand on it but could not punch it high enough.
After the game, Henderson called the game one of the best Dartmouth had played this season.
"We played quite well the first half, and the second half was more even," Henderson said. "But that performance was probably a step up from any of our performances this season, except for maybe the Indiana [University] game, so that looks good going forward."
The Crimson would not go down without a fight, however, pressuring the Dartmouth defense all the way up to the 90th minute. With only a few seconds left on the clock, Dartmouth goalkeeper Sean Milligan '09 made a rare mistake, misplaying the ball and leaving a point-blank shot at an empty net for Harvard's All-American forward Andre Akpan.
With the equalizer seemingly at hand, Akpan sent the ball sailing over the crossbar as the Big Green dodged a bullet.
With his fifth shutout of the season safe after the match had ended, co-captain Milligan could laugh it off but admitted he was a bit nervous for a second.
"Sean's been great for us all year," Cook said. "But sometimes you just need a little luck, too."
Dartmouth has a busy week in front of it now. The Big Green plays in-state rival University of New Hampshire on Tuesday evening before resuming Ivy play on Saturday against Cornell.
The team is planning yet another tough match with UNH, who has given Dartmouth trouble with its direct, physical style of play in the past. Cook is confident, however, that the Big Green will be able to counter UNH's physicality by moving the ball quickly and opening up the field.
The players share Cook's confidence. "Everybody was up for this game, so now we have to approach UNH like we approached this game," Milligan said. "If we play like we did tonight, we shouldn't have a problem."
Cook hopes to get better fan turnout with the polls open at Hanover High School all day on Tuesday.
"Hopefully all the Dartmouth students will go vote on Tuesday and then come out and help us get an important win," he said.
Dartmouth kicks off against UNH at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Burnham Field.
