M. Lax Routs B.C. for First Win

Even on the nastiest New England day, there's no place like home.

The Harvard men's lacrosse team braved the elements to defend its home ground yesterday, posting its first win of the season in a 12-6 rout of Boston College at Ohiri Field.

The Crimson (1-2) broke an early 1-1 tie with three quick goals at the end of the second period, and then rode out a wild second half--in which the teams combined to score 13 times--to outlast the Eagles (1-2), outshooting them 43-34.

Harvard had dropped a discouraging 7-6 decision to Hobart last Sunday and suffered a 13-5 blowout at Fairfield in its season opener.

Sophomore attackman Dana Sprong scored a game-high four goals, including three in the fourth quarter, to boost his team-leading total to nine. Sophomore midfielder Roger Buttles contributed two goals and an assist and now has seven points on the season.

Harvard junior goalie Keith Cynar had a relatively light afternoon, making 16 saves and improving to 1-2.

The Crimson struggled early on to find an offensive rhythm. It netted only one goal in the first period, that from freshman attackman Colin Leary, who notched his first collegiate score with 10:53 remaining.

Leary had assisted on a goal in the Hobart loss.

But B.C.'s offensive funk far outlived the Crimson's, and only attackman Michael Adair's score with 29 seconds remaining in the first quarter prevented the Eagles from suffering a scoreless first half.

Adair scored when he rolled out from behind the cage and flipped a waist-level shot past Cynar.

He led the Eagles with three goals on the afternoon.

After the Crimson went up 2-1 on the first of three man-up goals on the afternoon, sophomore Tripp Callan scored the first of his two goals on the afternoon to up the lead to 3-1.

Callan took freshman James Christian's pass from behind the net on the left side and beat B.C. senior goalie Anthony Cirri in the bottom right corner of the net.

Sophomore midfielder Adam McGowan closed out the first half's scoring on a sparkling offensive rush keyed when senior longstick Ethan Oberman picked up a ground ball in the midfield. Oberman flipped the ball ahead to McGowan, who broke down the middle of the field uncontested and zipped a shot past Cirri for the 4-1 advantage.

Harvard outshot the Eagles 14-3 in the second period.

At times, Cirri was the lone force keeping the Eagles involved, as he made several quality saves, including stoning Buttles from point-blank range in the second.

Cirri made 22 saves but saw his robust GAA increase to 11.00.

Out of the intermission, the Crimson was aggressive and scored four times in the third quarter, seemingly at will, including the first goal of the season from junior attackman Lawson DeVries. DeVries was a key underclassman scorer for the Crimson last season, nailing down 20 goals and 11 assists while compiling a .445 shooting percentage.

But it was Sprong who wrote the final chapter of the victory, getting the Crimson's final three goals after Buttles had opened the lead to 9-3.

Harvard was typically effective clearing the ball, making 28 good out of 35, including 12 of 15 in the second half.

Notes

Harvard will have a busy spring break, hosting No. 14 Penn on Saturday before challenging No. 2 Duke on April 3 in New Canaan, Conn. The 6-0 Blue Devils boast the highest ranking in program history and have beaten three ranked teams in Maryland, UMBC and Navy.

With four goals, Sprong maintains the team scoring lead with nine goals and 10 points. In just three games, Sprong has now equaled his goal total from his rookie season, when he scored nine goals and collected four assists.

Oberman collected his first point of the season when he assisted on McGowan's goal in the second.