M. Water Polo Splits With St. Francis, Queens in Return to Blodgett

With the score tied at four after two periods of play against water polo powerhouse St. Francis, Harvard needed a stellar second half to defeat the Terriers.

As the final seconds ticked down, sophomore Brian Kuczynski found the offensive strength Harvard desperately sought, raced to the opposite side of the pool, and netted the Crimson’s final goal of the game.

Unfortunately for Harvard, it was much too little, much too late.

The Crimson (3-4) lost 11-6 to the Terriers. After playing competitively with St. Francis for the first half, Harvard was unable to keep pace with its opponent, perhaps because it was worn out from its defeat of Queens College 14-6 two hours earlier. The victory over the Knights was the Crimson’s season opener at Blodgett Pool, and Harvard christened the redesigned pool with a win.

ST. FRANCIS 11, HARVARD 6

Junior co-captain Michael Garcia and junior Alessandro Lazzarini coordinated the offense against the powerful St. Francis team, and the duo was successful at penetrating the Terriers defense in the first half.

After an assist from Lazzarini, Garcia netted the Crimson’s second goal of the game to tie the game at two after the first period. For Harvard to have a chance against St. Francis, it was imperative that the team not fall behind, and Garcia’s goal gave Harvard momentum and confidence.

The Crimson started off the second period strong, taking the lead after Lazzarini passed the ball to a wide-open Garcia.

St. Francis pushed back and drove towards the Crimson goal with an opportunity to tie the game one minute later with a breakaway chance against co-captain goaltender Robbie Burmeister. Burmeister made a save to keep the Crimson on top.

On their next drive, however, the Terriers capitalized on a Harvard defensive mistake to tie the game at three apiece. On a power play with three minutes to go in the half, and with Garcia and Lazzarini sidelined, St. Francis took the lead back.

Senior Greg Valiant, who had been pressing hard against the Terriers’ goal all game, finally snuck the ball by the St. Francis netminder 30 seconds later. With the shot clock running down, Valiant tossed the ball into the net, putting Harvard in prime position to come out and take the second half.

Instead, St. Francis shut down the Crimson offense and managed to notch seven goals of its own in the second half. Harvard was double-teaming the Terriers hole set, and though the strategy was successful most of the time, it also left a St. Francis player unattended in the pool.

“Our guys had to spend more energy wrestling and fighting for position,” Burmeister said. “So they got tired, which led to some mistakes.”

A visibly frustrated Burmeister was unable to stop the Terriers from running away with the game. Though freshman Danny Bilotti and Kuzcynski scored in the second half for Harvard, the Crimson was unable to keep up with or upset the top team in its division.

“We will definitely be competitive and [Saturday] night was a good representation of that,” Burmeister said. “St. Francis is the most dominant team in our division and we played them tight for most of the game.”

HARVARD 14, QUEENS 6

Harvard’s easy win over Queens was a product of an entire team effort. Because of the huge lead the Crimson held throughout the game, the team was able to rotate all its players in and out of the pool in order to rest up for the night game.

Junior Eric Byrd netted two goals for the Crimson, which seemed to get stronger as the game went on.

“There was always good movement, even towards the end when it’s tempting to say the game’s over and stop driving,” Eric Byrd said. “We actually put shots on goal which we’ve had some problems with.”

Freshman Jay Connelly, who took over the task of minding the goal after the first half, held the Knights to just two goals in the last half of play.

“Jay’s a great goalie,” Burmeister said. “He runs the defense well and all the field players trust him.”

Harvard controlled the pace of the game, running Queens back and forth across the pool and successfully tiring the Knights out by the end of the game.

The Crimson will start its long stint on the road against MIT Thursday evening.

—Staff writer Megha Parekh can be reached at parekh@fas.harvard.edu.