Harvard Falls in Defensive Battle

Coming off of consecutive one-goal losses to No. 3 Cornell and No. 2 Princeton, the Harvard men’s lacrosse team dropped another close contest yesterday in its match at Harvard Stadium against Brown.

Even though the Crimson (5-5, 1-3 Ivy) outshot the Bears (10-2, 3-1 Ivy) 31 to 27, it was not as successful as Brown in finding the back of the net, ultimately coming up short in an 8-6 defeat.

“We knew it would be a challenge,” Harvard coach John Tillman said, “But we didn’t play as well as we would have liked. We had a lot of mental errors and didn’t execute as well as we would have liked.”

The Crimson came out strong with the first goal of the opening period when junior attacker Travis Burr fed the ball to sophomore attacker Dean Gibbons on the right wing. where he finished in the top right corner of the net from 10 yards away.

The Bears responded a few minutes later when Brown attacker Thomas Muldoon beat senior goaltender Joe Pike, firing a shot in the top left corner.

The Bears added two more goals in the last five minutes of the period, one apiece from attacker Andrew Feinberg and midfielder Brady Williams, to put Brown up 3-1.

Harvard recovered in the second period and bounced back from the Bear’s three-goal spurt.

“We did not panic and kept playing hard,” Tillman said, “Our seniors showed great leadership and it says a lot about the senior class. The way they have been handling themselves has really been really impressive to me and I think that’s a big reason why we came back.”

The Crimson came out with confidence and put Brown under pressure, firing two consecutive shots that hit the top post.

After regaining possession in the ensuing scramble, Gibbons faked around the circle, coming from behind the net to finish low for his second goal of the night.

Midway through the period, Feinberg, who came into the game ranked sixth in the country with 3.91 points-per-game, scored his second goal of the night when teammate Thomas Muldoon found him from behind the net and he ripped a shot past Pike.

Harvard responded two minutes later.

Junior midfielder Jason Duboe sent a pass to captain midfielder Max Motschwiller cutting across the field and Motschwiller fired a shot from 10 yards in front of the net into the back of the goal, bringing the score within one.

Although the Bears led 4-3 at the half, the Crimson had an 18-10 advantage in shots and a 12-11 edge in ground balls.

Brown came out strong in the third period.

Feinberg tallied his third of the goal of the night, his 32nd of the season, less than two minutes into the frame.

The Bears notched two more in the next three minutes on scores from Charlie Kenney and Reade Seligmann to build a 7-3 lead.

Harvard kept the pressure on with frequent shots, but was denied time after time by Brown goaltender Jordan Burke.

Burke, last season’s Ivy League Player of the Year and a Second Team All-American, totaled 12 saves on the night.

“You have got give the kid credit,” Duboe said, “[Burke] is a great goalie and he certainly takes away a lot of your strengths as a shooter by baiting you. I mean the kids [an] All-American.”

“[Brown] plays a defensive style where they make you shoot certain shots and the ones they force you to take [Jordan Burke] gobbles them up,” Tillman said.

The Crimson eventually broke through Burke’s defense with an unassisted goal by Duboe at the end of the third period when the junior blasted a shot from 15 yards out, closing the gap to 7-4.

Two minutes into the fourth period, a loose ball in front of the cage caused Burke to step out and challenge, but as he strayed from goal freshman attacker Jeff Cohen gained possession and slipped the ball into the net for a Harvard goal.

Minutes later, Cohen struck again, his team-leading 20th goal of the season, to bring the score within one.

Over the last 10 minutes, the Crimson had several opportunities to score but came up empty-handed.

With less than two minutes remaining, the Bears tacked on an insurance goal, its eighth score of the night, for a final score of 8-6.

“If you make a mistake [Brown] will get you,” Tillman said. “We made a couple in a row, and they made us pay.”