4th-Quarter Comeback Falls Short

Undermanned and down 8-2 in the fourth quarter, the Harvard men’s lacrosse team launched a furious rally that fell just short, as Yale (7-5, 2-4 Ivy) defeated the Crimson (4-7, 2-3) 9-8 in a physical contest in front of an energized crowd Saturday afternoon at Harvard Stadium.

While the final tally was not to the liking of the 1,063 Crimson faithful present, there was no denying that the game was entertaining to watch and worthy of a traditional rivalry game.

“It’s a deep rivalry,” co-captain Brian Mahler said. “We don’t like Yale, and they don’t like us.”

For the first 45 minutes, it appeared as if the Bulldogs would be heading back to New Haven on the heels of a blowout win.

The first quarter belonged to the Bulldogs as four different players scored goals and the Yale defense held Harvard to just two shots.

The Crimson suffered a serious blow on offense 10 minutes into the quarter when Carle Stenmark—second on the team in scoring—went down with a blow to his right knee. The senior was taken off on a cart and would not return to the game, although the injury was not deemed serious.

Having lost one of its offensive weapons, the Crimson never had any solid scoring opportunities in the quarter.

“I just think they were a little more composed in the beginning of the game,” Mahler said. “[Your opponents] go up 4-0, and it’s very hard to come back. Physically, we’re even; mentally, I don’t think so.”

Entering the second quarter down four goals, Harvard turned to its defense to keep itself in the game as the offense slowly came to life.

After getting shut out in a quarter for the seventh time this year, it was only the sixth time that the Crimson held a team scoreless for a quarter.

Senior Greg Cohen got Harvard on the board with 10:14 remaining on an unassisted goal. The Crimson would get its second goal on Mahler’s bullet from 10 yards out to enter the locker room down by only two.

“That’s been the downfall of our team: we play in quarters,” co-captain John Henry Flood said. “We have to catch up and play the way we can play.”

Any momentum Harvard had heading into halftime quickly evaporated as the second half began. The Crimson looked beaten and exhausted and was beleaguered by eight turnovers, three of which resulted in Yale goals. Tyler Casertano factored in all four Bulldog goals, scoring three and picking up an assist on the fourth.

However, two different teams took the field in the fourth quarter with Yale content to slow down the game and play defensively and the Crimson playing with nothing to lose.

“We left it all on the line in the fourth quarter and didn’t care if we made mistakes.” Flood said. “It’s pretty easy to get a run of goals together when nobody cares, and that’s what I think it was—a do-or-die mentality.”

And it almost worked.

Senior attackman Evan Calvert started the Harvard rally, netting his first goal of the day in transition off a quick pass from Cohen to make the score 8-3 with 11:51 remaining in the game. A faceoff win by Flood quickly led to freshman attackman Jason Duboe netting his 11th goal of the season to trim the deficit to four.

Four minutes later, the Crimson struck again in rapid succession. After Cohen netted his second goal of the day with 6:43 remaining, Flood won the faceoff, and a minute later Calvert put in his second of the day.

Suddenly, Harvard was down just three.

“The thing that was creating goals for us was transition,” Crimson coach Scott Anderson said. “When you start playing more aggressively, it happens a lot. We have the luxury as a team where if we are able to score goals, we get the ball back right away because we are dominating faceoffs.”

After Yale stretched the lead to three, Harvard answered with freshman Travis Burr and Mahler responding with two goals to make it a one-goal game with 1:42 remaining.

After a Flood faceoff win, Yale’s Will Gano was flagged for pushing, giving the Crimson a 30-second extra-man opportunity.

But Harvard did not even manage a shot during the penalty, instead simply passing the ball around the outside.

“The idea was to work it around and get the best shot available,” Flood said. “Our coaches told us to wait for the best shot, but I think they wanted us to shoot a little earlier.”

Cohen finally took a shot on goal with 21 seconds remaining in a game. His shot went wide left, but was picked up by Mahler. Mahler’s subsequent shot missed to the right, yet fell right in front of Burr.

Burr passed to junior attackman Brooks Scholl, whose shot at the buzzer went wide as the Bulldog players rushed the field in jubilation.