The no. 6 Harvard men's soccer (6-0) travels down to Winston-Salem, North Carolina for tonight's out of conference clash with the no. 3 Demon Deacons of Wake Forest (4-1-1) in what will be the toughest test of the season for the Crimson.
A lot is at stake for the Crimson. A result down south will place the Crimson in the top five of the national rankings, which would be the highest ever ranking for the Johnnies, and could very well cement Andre Akpan's pursuit for the Hermann Trophy. The Crimson are also hoping to remain among the five teams with perfect records, and a win tonight would be the best start for a Crimson squad since the 1970 team that went 12-0. The Crimson enter the match 1-0 against ranked opponents, knocking off then ranked no. 14 Boston University at Ohiri Field.
Wake Forest also has a lot to play for. The Deacs, who are at 4-1-1, saw their one loss come at the hands of ACC Opponent Virginia, the first time Wake Forest had been defeated in 35 matches at Spry Stadium. They got back to their winning ways at home with a 2-1 victory over Elon, but one thing is for certain- the Deacs won't want to lose two of three games at home after such an impressive streak. They will also be trying to keep another impressive streak alive, as they have not fallen to a non-conference opponent in 45 straight matches, with their last non-conference loss coming in 2005 in the NCAA tournament against Cal. Wake Forest enters this game 1-1-1 against ranked opponents, drawing with then no. 12 Notre Dame and defeating then no. 7 Indiana, with the loss coming to Virginia.
Harvard and Wake Forest have never met on the pitch before. Harvard is 8-14-4 against schools from the Atlantic Coast Conference all-time, including 1-0 this year after defeating Boston College on the road. Wake Forest, playing its first game against an Ivy League opponent this season, is 1-2-0 all-time against the Ancient Eight. Their last game against the Ivy League was in last year's NCAA Tournament, where they beat Dartmouth 7-0.
Harvard Game Notes Here
Wake Forest Game Notes Here
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Match of Champions Tonight on WHRB
I said last week I wanted to start off each pregame post with a video. This week's video: Harvard Scores a Touchdown against Brown in the first ever night game at Harvard Stadium.
Now that tradition has been carried out, let's turn our attention to the game, the official kickoff to the Ivy League season.
Both teams return under the lights at Harvard Stadium as the Crimson kick off their 2009 Ivy League and Home Campaigns. Both teams enter at 0-1 with inconsistent signal callers, but a talented running and receiving corps. Both teams want to avoid 0-2, especially since in Ivy League play, only eight teams have recovered from an opening Ancient Eight loss to go on and win the Ivy Title- Harvard being the latest to do it, last year. Of course, last year's loss at Brown is a storyline too. For the Johnnies, they want to get revenge on the only blight in their 9-1 record and 6-1 conference record. For Bruno, it's all about proving last year's game in the torrential downpour in Providence wasn't a fluke.
Last week's key stats: Collier Winters had 195 yards and two touchdowns in the air for the Crimson, while throwing no interceptions against a talented Holy Cross secondary. Dominic Randolph threw for 293 yards and two touchdowns against a talented Harvard secondary. The result was a 27-20 loss that knocked Harvard to the "also receiving votes" part of the national polls.
Kyle Newhall threw for 267 yards and three touchdowns against a weak Stony Brook secondary, and was also picked off two times. Brown's defense earned three turnovers, but the game was lost on special teams, with a missed extra point and a missed game winning field goal being enough to send Brown to 0-1.
Everything else Harvard-Brown will be covered by the pregame show, hosted by Scott Reed and James Yoon, which starts at 6:30 tonight. The pregame includes the Harvard player of the game for last week, Derrick Barker, an interview with Coach Murphy, and a snippet of an interview with ESPN's Ivan Maisel, in addition to analysis of Harvard-Brown.
And of course, Alasdair Wilkins, Tom Brennan and Kara Hollis will have the game itself at 7pm. Kara also sat down with Pat Long and Captain Carl Ehrlich for the halftime show "Kicking a Touchdown." This match of the reigning Ivy League champions is sure to be a great one, especially with an expected crowd of over 20,000. If you're not one of the 20,000 making it out to the stadium, the game will be on 95.3 FM and WHRB.org.
So since everybody else has got the Harvard-Brown game well in hand, let's turn to the rest of the Ivy League, after the jump.
Now that tradition has been carried out, let's turn our attention to the game, the official kickoff to the Ivy League season.
Both teams return under the lights at Harvard Stadium as the Crimson kick off their 2009 Ivy League and Home Campaigns. Both teams enter at 0-1 with inconsistent signal callers, but a talented running and receiving corps. Both teams want to avoid 0-2, especially since in Ivy League play, only eight teams have recovered from an opening Ancient Eight loss to go on and win the Ivy Title- Harvard being the latest to do it, last year. Of course, last year's loss at Brown is a storyline too. For the Johnnies, they want to get revenge on the only blight in their 9-1 record and 6-1 conference record. For Bruno, it's all about proving last year's game in the torrential downpour in Providence wasn't a fluke.
Last week's key stats: Collier Winters had 195 yards and two touchdowns in the air for the Crimson, while throwing no interceptions against a talented Holy Cross secondary. Dominic Randolph threw for 293 yards and two touchdowns against a talented Harvard secondary. The result was a 27-20 loss that knocked Harvard to the "also receiving votes" part of the national polls.
Kyle Newhall threw for 267 yards and three touchdowns against a weak Stony Brook secondary, and was also picked off two times. Brown's defense earned three turnovers, but the game was lost on special teams, with a missed extra point and a missed game winning field goal being enough to send Brown to 0-1.
Everything else Harvard-Brown will be covered by the pregame show, hosted by Scott Reed and James Yoon, which starts at 6:30 tonight. The pregame includes the Harvard player of the game for last week, Derrick Barker, an interview with Coach Murphy, and a snippet of an interview with ESPN's Ivan Maisel, in addition to analysis of Harvard-Brown.
And of course, Alasdair Wilkins, Tom Brennan and Kara Hollis will have the game itself at 7pm. Kara also sat down with Pat Long and Captain Carl Ehrlich for the halftime show "Kicking a Touchdown." This match of the reigning Ivy League champions is sure to be a great one, especially with an expected crowd of over 20,000. If you're not one of the 20,000 making it out to the stadium, the game will be on 95.3 FM and WHRB.org.
So since everybody else has got the Harvard-Brown game well in hand, let's turn to the rest of the Ivy League, after the jump.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Hockey Headlines - September 24
With 29 days to go until the Crimson's first and only exhibition game against McGill University, there are a couple bits of Harvard hockey-related news after the jump.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Harvard Headlines- Mid-Week Edition
It's been a while since our last Blog version of the Harvard Headlines but it's a busy day for the Crimson, and there's plenty of information about the Crimson across the Web, so today seemed like the best day to change that. With that in mind, here we go.
Ivan Maisel has a new ESPN column about a similarity between Harvard and Yale- both teams have (or will have in the case of the Crimson) quarterbacks on their depth chart who went from the BCS to the Ivy League. The article compares Patrick Witt (younger brother of former Harvard QB Jeff Witt), who transferred from Nebraska to the Elis, with Andrew Hatch, who transferred from LSU back to the Johnnies.
The article is worth the read just to again prove what many already know if they follow Harvard sports- that head coach Tim Murphy is a class act. Murphy kept in contact with Hatch after he originally left Harvard, and even sent a congratulatory note to Hatch after his first career start and win over Appalachian State. [ESPN]
The weekly Ivy League teleconference occurred yesterday. Coach Phil Estes of Brown spoke of the emphasis his team put on the kicking game this week after an effort at Stony Brook saw them miss an extra point, the game winning field goal, in addition to poor coverage on kickoffs resulting in good field position. Speaking about Harvard's offense, Coach Estes spoke positively of Collier Winters' ability to elude the pass rush, and says his team cannot solely focus on containing Winters because Harvard can run and throw the ball as well. [Ivy League Sports]
Harvard head coach Tim Murphy also fielded some questions, including the difficulties of preparing for a Friday night game and about the Brown game being a rivalry game.
Coach Murphy had this to say about the nature of the rivalry between Harvard and Brown.
Moving off the gridiron and on to the ice, recent Harvard alumnus and last year's co-captain and co-host of Top Shelf, Jimmy Fraser, was mentioned in the Providence Journal as someone who had made an impression on the Baby Bruins' coach Rob Murray during the first day of training camp. Fraser will have an opportunity tonight to continue to impress coach Murray as Providence starts their preseason against Springfield in Marlboro. [Providence Journal]
Staying on the ice, the ECAC held its women's hockey coaches' teleconference yesterday, at the end of which the ECAC revealed the coaches' season predictions and the preseason All-Conference Team. Harvard received three first place votes and 103 points total for second place in the coaches' poll behind St. Lawrence University. Goaltender Christina Kessler was named to the All-Conference Team. [GoCrimson]
Midweek Games of the Week
The field hockey (3-1) team looks to get back to their winning ways with another trip to the Nutmeg State as they face the undefeated no. 5 UCONN Huskies (7-0) tonight in Storrs, CT. Last time out, the Crimson gave up a hat trick to Yale's Ashley McCauley during a 4 goal Eli first half, before rallying with three unanswered goals in the second half. The Crimson offense has scored 15 goals so far this season.
Meanwhile, the undefeated no. 6 men's soccer team (5-0) have their second of a four game road trip as they face the New Hampshire Wildcats (2-3-1) this afternoon. The Crimson started the road trip with a 4-1 win over Fairfield. The Crimson are trying to match their best start to a season since 2007.
Ivan Maisel has a new ESPN column about a similarity between Harvard and Yale- both teams have (or will have in the case of the Crimson) quarterbacks on their depth chart who went from the BCS to the Ivy League. The article compares Patrick Witt (younger brother of former Harvard QB Jeff Witt), who transferred from Nebraska to the Elis, with Andrew Hatch, who transferred from LSU back to the Johnnies.
The article is worth the read just to again prove what many already know if they follow Harvard sports- that head coach Tim Murphy is a class act. Murphy kept in contact with Hatch after he originally left Harvard, and even sent a congratulatory note to Hatch after his first career start and win over Appalachian State. [ESPN]
The weekly Ivy League teleconference occurred yesterday. Coach Phil Estes of Brown spoke of the emphasis his team put on the kicking game this week after an effort at Stony Brook saw them miss an extra point, the game winning field goal, in addition to poor coverage on kickoffs resulting in good field position. Speaking about Harvard's offense, Coach Estes spoke positively of Collier Winters' ability to elude the pass rush, and says his team cannot solely focus on containing Winters because Harvard can run and throw the ball as well. [Ivy League Sports]
Harvard head coach Tim Murphy also fielded some questions, including the difficulties of preparing for a Friday night game and about the Brown game being a rivalry game.
Coach Murphy had this to say about the nature of the rivalry between Harvard and Brown.
Every game with us is a "rivalry" game. I get this question every week. Our big rival is obviously Yale and traditionally Princeton as well. We've got a bull's-eye on our front and our back as well... Whoever wants to call us a rival is fine with us.[GoCrimson]
Moving off the gridiron and on to the ice, recent Harvard alumnus and last year's co-captain and co-host of Top Shelf, Jimmy Fraser, was mentioned in the Providence Journal as someone who had made an impression on the Baby Bruins' coach Rob Murray during the first day of training camp. Fraser will have an opportunity tonight to continue to impress coach Murray as Providence starts their preseason against Springfield in Marlboro. [Providence Journal]
Staying on the ice, the ECAC held its women's hockey coaches' teleconference yesterday, at the end of which the ECAC revealed the coaches' season predictions and the preseason All-Conference Team. Harvard received three first place votes and 103 points total for second place in the coaches' poll behind St. Lawrence University. Goaltender Christina Kessler was named to the All-Conference Team. [GoCrimson]
Midweek Games of the Week
The field hockey (3-1) team looks to get back to their winning ways with another trip to the Nutmeg State as they face the undefeated no. 5 UCONN Huskies (7-0) tonight in Storrs, CT. Last time out, the Crimson gave up a hat trick to Yale's Ashley McCauley during a 4 goal Eli first half, before rallying with three unanswered goals in the second half. The Crimson offense has scored 15 goals so far this season.
Meanwhile, the undefeated no. 6 men's soccer team (5-0) have their second of a four game road trip as they face the New Hampshire Wildcats (2-3-1) this afternoon. The Crimson started the road trip with a 4-1 win over Fairfield. The Crimson are trying to match their best start to a season since 2007.
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