NEW YORK — Harvard scored twice in the opening 12 minutes and tacked on a third just over the half-hour mark to deal the Columbia men's soccer team its first home defeat, 3-1, Saturday afternoon at Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium.
Columbia (2-4-2, 0-2-0 Ivy) was an unbeaten 2-0-1 on its home turf this season entering the match. Harvard (2-3-4, 1-0-1 Ivy) jumped to the top of the Ivy League table with the win.
"I thought we started the game relatively brightly," first-year Columbia head coach Michael Casper said. "I was pleased with how they came out of the gates and then you make a mistake that leads to the penalty kick and leads to the first goal. That put us in a tough spot from there."
After getting two good looks in the first five minutes of the game, including one that required saving off the foot of Ryan Kipness, Harvard got an opportunity on the counter. Michael Collodi came off his line in an attempt to stop it but was whistled for a foul in the box, earning him a yellow card and earning Harvard a penalty kick. Alessandro Arlotti was true from 12 yards to open the scoring in the sixth minute.
Less than six minutes later, the Crimson scored again. This time, Arlotti was on the assisting end, sending a long ball through the air to the far side of the penalty area for Matus Vician, who squeezed a ball low into the area for Marcos Ojea Quintana. Quintana was able to get off a pretty clean look from the top of the six and Collodi had no chance of stopping the shot to his left, doubling the Harvard lead.
Columbia showed some fight and got back in it. It started with a ball delivered from the center circle by Matthew Leong that found Jake Novoshelski up the far side in stride. Novoshelski was able to catch up to It inside the area, dribble around two defenders and leave it for an on-rushing Joao Lima. The sophomore blasted a shot from the edge of the penalty arc, beating the goalkeeper to his left to net his second goal in three games.
Unfortunately, Harvard was able to regain a two-goal advantage in the 31st minute. Ale Gutierrez won a header that sprang a teammate free behind the defense. That teammate was Dylan Tellado, who beat a Columbia defender to the ball and made something out of it, seemingly out of nowhere.
"I thought we just conceded some soft goals today," Casper added. "I thought that was what let us down. If we're going to be a competitive side then we've got to be tighter in the back and not give up goals like that."
The Lions had some opportunities to get back into the game again in the second half but couldn't get anything else past Lucian Wood. One of the better opportunities came in the 53rd minute.
Jake Novoshelski got in behind the defense and fired a shot across goal from just outside the top of the six that got by Wood. However, his attempt was sent rolling past the left post.
"We battled hard. Coming out of the half we performed well and generated a number of good looks and good chances," Casper went on to say. "If we could have found a way to get one of those in then I think it would have made things interesting."
Wood made four saves on the afternoon, three of which came in the second half.
Columbia hopes to regroup for a local midweek battle this Tuesday at St. John's. First kick from Belson Stadium in Queens is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.
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