Saturday’s match against Harvard ended in a manner all too familiar for the Elis this season. In their Ivy League opener at Ohiri Field, the Bulldogs (1–8–1, 0–1 Ivy) fell to the Crimson (3–3–3, 1–0 Ivy), 1–0 — their third consecutive loss overall and their third straight one-goal loss to the Crimson.

Both the Crimson and the Bulldogs shared control of the ball throughout the game;the two teams recorded eighteen fouls and eleven shots each while the Elis had four corner kicks to the Crimson’s five.But ultimately, a Yale offense that has been struggling all season was unable to capitalize on key opportunities.

“It’s never easy to play on the road especially at Harvard. Those games are always a battle,” head coach Brian Tompkins said. “They tend to be physical and just kind of high energy games and yesterday was no different.”

30 minutes into the game, Harvard defender Jaren LeGreca sent a ball across the box that midfielder Scott Prozeller was able to find and head past Bulldog goalie Bobby Thalman ’13 and into the back of the net for the game’s only goal.

“It was a pretty sloppy game, just a battle,” midfielder Andy Hackbarth ’12 said. “It was tough to play in, but we went out there and battled and as the stats showed it was a close game. It could have gone either way, but we were on the wrong end of it.”

In the second half, midfielder Eric Meyer ’11 and forward Peter Jacobson ’14 had shots that could have tied up the game, but they both barely missed the frame of the goal.

Converting shot opportunities into goals has been a problem for the Elis the entireseason. Through ten games, the Bulldogs have only scored four goals.

“There weren’t a lot of opportunities to score for either team,” Tompkins said. “But we did have a couple chances to score in the second half to tie the game, but one of them went just wide of the goal and the other went just over.”

Thalman recorded three saves on the day as Crimson goalie Austin Harms needed only one to secure the shutout.

The Bulldogs will be on the road again this Saturday as they travel to Dartmouth, N.H. to face the Big Green in a 7p.m. matchup.