Crimson Ends Year With Thrilling Win

In sports, a lot can happen in the matter of a second. Too many times have fans witnessed games and championships being won and lost—all in that tiny fraction of time.

But for freshman lacrosse player Katie Doherty, one second would be more than enough time to score a goal. With just one tick left on the clock in regulation, the sensational rookie scored her 16th goal of the season, lifting the Harvard women’s lacrosse team (6-10, 2-5 Ivy) over host Boston College (9-9) yesterday to a 9-8 victory in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

“It was awesome,” sophomore Sam McMahon said. “There’s no better feeling to have done this for our seniors. On their Senior Day, we couldn’t get the win for them, so this was like their second Senior Day.”

The victory against the Eagles came just a week after the Crimson upset 20th-ranked Cornell 11-7. That win marked not only Harvard’s first win over a ranked opponent in seven years, but also gave the Crimson a much-needed burst of confidence to finish out the season strong.

“We had a rough patch in the middle of the season, so you couldn’t have asked for a better ending,” senior Shannon Flynn said. “We saw what we are capable of doing out on the field [against Cornell], so that really gave us the momentum for today.”

And the Crimson wasted no time capitalizing on this newfound confidence, coming out of the gates running with an explosive offensive attack in the first period against its cross-town opponent. Though Brittany Wilton got the Eagles on the scoreboard first with 21:52 to go in the first half, junior tri-captain Sara Flood responded with a tally of her own less than 40 seconds later to even the game at 1-1.

“It was all about hustling for the full 30 minutes, defensively and offensively,” McMahon said. “Defensively, it was all about making big stands. [Junior goalie] Katie Martino was playing amazingly. Offensively, it was just putting it away. There’s really no explaining it.”

The two teams traded two more sets of goals, and with the score tied at 3 it appeared that neither squad could exploit a weakness in its opponent’s defensive game.

But Harvard would embark on a 5-0 run late in the first period, getting impressive solo shots from sophomore Jess Halpern and Flynn.

“We knew that they were going to push out on us on defense,” Flynn said. “We tried to stay in section, work with one another, and clear space for each other. I think that allowed those seven goals to come through.”

The duo of senior Kaitlin Martin and Flood also got in on the action, with Flood providing assists to Martin each time as she earned the last two tallies of the period.

“They definitely do have chemistry,” Flynn said. “Sara’s a really great feeder; she gets a lot of assists because she can really read the defense well. Kaitlin is just a phenomenal scorer, so the combination of that has really helped us in the last two games.”

With the offensive spark and a bend-but-not-break defense led by Martino, the Crimson limited the Eagles’ first period damage to just three tallies while scoring seven times, giving it a decisive advantage going into the second period.

“[Martino] is feeling really confident, which is really what you need as a goalie because everything is against you,” McMahon said. “She was ready for [the second half].”

The match had all the makings of a nail-biting game going down to the wire when BC ignited a comeback effort just minutes after the beginning of the second period. Helping the Eagles was Lauren Fitzpatrick, who scored two goals in as many minutes. With her efforts, the Eagles cut the lead to just 7-5 for Harvard.

The Crimson dominated draw controls all afternoon—claiming a 5-2 advantage—but suffered from four second half turnovers. With just 1:33 on the clock, Martin won the draw, but the Eagles regained possession and tied the game 8-8 with just 30 seconds remaining.

Enter Katie Doherty.

After Harvard won yet another draw control, Flynn tossed the ball to Doherty to set up the game-winning goal. With just one second left on the clock, Doherty fired and scored, preventing the Crimson from blowing a four point, first-half lead.

“Winning those draw controls was really the key to the game,” McMahon said. “We also had to maintain possession.”

“We didn’t play as well in the second half,” Flynn added. “We let them come back in, had some turnovers on both ends. It was nerve wracking but we were able to finish it off, so that was really good.”

Despite a tough season, the Harvard players remain optimistic about the future of their team. The Crimson will look to build off of a strong two-game finish from this season.

“We have big expectations for next year,” McMahon said. “Not many people are graduating and we have a big freshman class coming in. It’s going to be a really big season and we want to pick up from where we left off.”

—Staff writer Kevin T. Chen can be reached at ktchen@fas.harvard.edu.