Sept. 1, 2007

Box Score

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The No. 22 Rhode Island men's soccer team was defeated, 3-2, by No. 15 Harvard in its season-opening match at Ohiri Field in Cambridge, Mass. Rhody tied the score twice, but was unable retaliate after Harvard netted the eventual game-winner in the 59th minute.

"Obviously we're disappointed with the loss," said head coach John O'Connor. "But I'm pleased with the way we played overall. I liked what I saw from a lot of our guys. We controlled play through much of the second half and had some good looks, we just couldn't finish when we needed to."

Harvard opened the scoring early on when Alex Chi blasted a one-timer into the upper corner at the 8:35 mark. Assists on the goal were credited to Andre Akpan and Matt Hoff.

Rhody evened the score just two minutes later when sophomore Domenic Petrarca (Providence, R.I.) sent a long throw-in to the front of the net where senior Geoffrey Cameron (Attleboro, Mass.) flicked the ball to classmate Lukasz Tumicz (Bisztynek, Poland), who headed the ball past the Crimson's Adam Hahn for Rhody's first goal of the season.

Harvard struck again fifteen minutes later when Kwaku Nyamekye got a shot past URI's sophomore goalkeeper Chris Pennock (Middlesborough, England) for the 2-1 advantage.

A Harvard foul in the 38th minute gave the Rams a free kick 30 yards from the net. Senior Dawid Badecki (Jelenia Gora, Poland) booted the ball towards the goal where a Harvard defender headed the ball into his own net to tie the score at 2-2.

The Crimson tallied what proved to be the game winner at the 58:45 mark when Hoff carried the ball down the right side, cut back to the middle and sent a one-timer into the upper left corner of the net for the 3-2 win.

In all, Rhode Island held a 6-2 corner kick advantage while being outshot by Harvard, 12-11. Pennock and Hahn made three saves each.

The nationally-ranked Rams (0-1-0) return to action on Monday night when they host in-state rival Providence (1-0-0) at 7:00 p.m.

"We're looking forward to Monday night," added O'Connor. "It's an intense rivalry between two great teams and we're excited to face PC on our home field. Hopefully we'll draw a good crowd so the boys can feed off of that energy. It'll be a good game, and an important one for both teams."