Keeley, Crimson Sneak Past Crimson

It was a happy homecoming for the Harvard women’s soccer team yesterday, as the Crimson defeated No. 20 Ohio State University 1-0 in the Ohiri Field home opener.

Freshman midfielder Allison Keeley scored her first collegiate goal in the eighty-third minute to give Harvard (3-2-0) the victory.

Sophomore forward Jamie Greenwald threaded a pass on the ground across the field to the far right post, where Keeley was making a run.

Sophomore midfielder Megan Merrit one-touched the ball onto Keeley, who laid the ball into the left side of the net past Buckeye goalie Staci Sinkway.

“It feels great. It’s awesome,” Keeley said of her first tally in a Crimson uniform. “We knew we were going to get one.”

In the seven minutes remaining after Keeley’s goal, the play became very frantic as the Buckeyes tried to even the score. Ohio State even replaced its goalie and sent her well beyond the 18-yard box.

On the other end of the field, Harvard brought all of its players back to protect against the attack.

“It’s hard to defend that because they don’t even pass anymore,” said junior co-captain back Laura Odorczyk. “They just blast away at the ball. We made sure that we had a body on every one of their forwards.”

The Crimson survived the attack, and senior midfielder Allison Kaveney cleared the ball in the final seconds.

The statistics state otherwise—Ohio State outshot Harvard 14-6—but the latter’s offense dominated for most of the game.

In addition, the Crimson controlled the 50/50 balls.

“Our coaches talk a lot about our forwards fronting their defenders,” Odorczyk said. “They make everyone’s job easier when they step in front of their defender.”

Harvard won most balls out of the air and strung together many intricate passes and runs.

“We’re starting to connect more up front,” Keeley said. “We’re figuring out when we can make the runs, and we’re getting more confident in each other.”

Freshman forward Erin Wylie put heavy pressure on Ohio State (2-2-2) from the left side, where her aggressiåve play earned her a yellow card in the eightieth minute.

After being swarmed by two Buckeye defenders, Wylie slide-tackled from behind to recover the ball, which is a mandatory yellow card warning.

The game was the opener of the Harvard Invitational, in which the Crimson hosts Ohio State, Miami University of Ohio and Northeastern for the weekend.

Harvard’s game against the Buckeye’s was delayed due to yesterday morning’s thunderstorms, but play resumed that afternoon.

The tournament began in 1994 but changes annually.

This is the first time that Ohio State and Miami University have played in it, and Northeastern has not appeared since 1998, when it lost both of its games. The tournament was held for in 1997, 2001, and 2004.

The Crimson plays its second and final game of the tournament against Miami University of Miami at 1:30 tomorrow.

—Staff writer Carrie H. Petri can be reached at cpetri@fas.harvard.edu.