Crimson Escape With 3-1 Win

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale probably deserved a better result in its Ivy League opener with Harvard.

Jake Freeman's goal midway through the second half snapped a 1-1 tie and the Crimson went on to a 3-1 victory in an evenly played and highly entertaining game before another big Saturday night crowd at Reese Stadium.

Yale came within a whisker of tying the score midway through the second half. Kyle Kenagy made a terrific play to get his head on a cross, and it appeared labelled for the corner, but Harvard goalkeeper Evan Mendez dove to his right and got just enough of it to deflect it away.

Tim Schmoll then scored on a penalty kick with 1:34 left after a questionable foul call to account for the deceiving final score.

The Crimson (2-4-2, 1-0 Ivy) had a slim 12-10 edge in shots, but the Bulldogs had a 5-3 advantage in corner kicks.

"This game was everything I expected from an Ivy League game and was a good college soccer game," said Kylie Stannard, the 5K Corral Head Coach of the Bulldogs "Each team had some good moments, it was very physical with a lot of emotion and some controversial calls.  We wanted to perform better than the last couple of games, and I think this was our best game all season.  We were the better team for the majority of the game and their keeper made a couple of very nice saves.  Their first goal was a complete fluke that came when we had all of the momentum, and the third goal was a phantom PK call that came from nothing."  

Yale (1-7, 0-1 Ivy) grabbed the early lead with a very pretty goal off a corner kick. Archie Kinnane sent a cross to Henry Albrecht, who tapped it out to Nicky Downs. Downs then fired a perfect shot into the top corner from 20 yards out.

Harvard tied it at 13:31 but the goal came when a Yale defender inadvertently sent a ball back that got past the goalkeeper and trickled into the net.

It stayed tied until 62:17 when Freeman headed in a long cross from Michael Klain.

The Bulldogs applied good pressure the rest of the way but couldn't get the equalizer.

"I'm very happy with the performance overall and this is something for us to build on for the rest of the Ivy League season," Stannard said. "Our guys deserved much more from tonight, and we are going to stick together and use this as a positive."

Yale takes a break from Ivy League play on Tuesday, traveling to Rutgers. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.