Northeastern Blanks Harvard, 1-0

by Matt Houde
September 2, 2012

BROOKLINE, Mass. -- Donovan Fayd'Herbe de Maudave scored his first collegiate goal and Oliver Blum made five saves to leads the Northeastern men's soccer team (3-0-0) to a 1-0 victory against Harvard (0-1-1) in front of 1,523 fans at Parsons Field on Sunday afternoon.

"It was a great day," said head coach Brian Ainscough. "We had an unbelievable crowd out there today, and they were like our 12th man. They gave the kids more energy, and I think we showed them that we can play pretty good ball."

Fayd'Herbe de Maudave's goal came in the 64th minute when he buried a loose rebound off a Don Anding shot from the right side. Blum made three saves in the second half, including two in the final minutes, to secure the victory. The Huskies held a 13-11 advantage in shots (6-5 shots on goal) and had 10 corner kicks to Harvard's five.

While the Crimson held a slight 7-6 edge in shots during the first half, it was the Huskies who controlled the pace of play for most of the opening 45 minutes. NU generated several scoring chances off of its eight corner opportunities.

Northeastern nearly took a 1-0 lead just four minutes into the match as Fayd'Herbe de Maudave crossed the ball from the left side to Anding in the box for a scoring chance. Anding had another break eight minutes later off a Dante Marini steal and through ball to the right of the net.

Jonathan Eckford almost put the Huskies on the board midway through the first half when he collected a loose ball just above the box, and blasted a shot that sailed just over the crossbar. Harvard's best chance of the half came when Kevin Harrington controlled the ball in the box before firing a shot just over the net.

NU continued to apply pressure in the second half, outshooting Harvard 7-4 and netting the game winner with 26:13 left in regulation. Marini and Anding continued to work together to create scoring chances for the Huskies, including a bid in the first three minutes of the second half that was blocked.

Northeastern was finally able to sneak one past Crimson goalkeeper Evan Mendez (five saves) following a flurry of opportunities midway through the half before Fayd'Herbe de Maudave netted his first goal of the season.

The Huskie defense took over from there, denying Harvard bid as the physical play increased following the goal, with three yellow cards being issued in the final 23 minutes.

The Huskies will be back in action next Sunday (Sep. 9) as Northeastern travels to Ann Arbor, Mich. for a matchup with Michigan. Game time is slated for 2 p.m.

A replay of this game is available at GoNU.com/xstream. GoNUxstream is free to all viewers and features live and on-demand video and audio broadcasts, as well as live game stats, and is accessible on PC and Mac computers, as well as on iPhones, iPads and Android phones.

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