Harvard Overcomes Six-Goal Deficit, Beats Big Green

For much of Saturday afternoon’s game, the No. 16 Harvard men’s lacrosse team’s offense was as cold as the heavily-bundled fans packed on the shady side of Harvard Stadium.

But as the crowd moved to the sunny side of the building, the Crimson attack began to warm up as well.

After falling behind, 9-3, early in the third quarter, Harvard (5-2, 1-1 Ivy) was able to stage a massive comeback in the second half and come away with a 13-11 victory over Dartmouth (2-4, 0-1).

“I’m really proud of them,” Crimson coach John Tillman said. “It’s a group that really believes, and they know if they work hard, they can be pretty successful.”

After Dartmouth opened the game by holding the ball for nearly three minutes and then scoring on freshman goalie Harry Krieger, Harvard retaliated.

Freshman Peter Schwartz hit sophomore Jeff Cohen with a pass directly in front of the net, and Cohen threw it past Dartmouth goalie Fergus Campbell to tie up the game.

Sophomore Terry White then took a pass and made a nice move inside, bouncing the ball past two defenders and into the goal to give the Crimson the lead. Just 12 seconds later, junior Dean Gibbons tallied his first goal, a line drive he fired past Campbell to give his team a 3-1 advantage.

But from there, Harvard struggled. Dartmouth’s Ari Sussman responded first, notching a goal despite from a hit from a Crimson defender that sent him flying into Krieger.

Before the period was over, two more Big Green goals put the team ahead, 4-3.

The second quarter was dominated by Dartmouth. Campbell made four consecutive saves during a long Harvard possession early in the period, including two great stick saves off shots from Gibbons and Schwartz.

On the other end of the field, Krieger had trouble stopping the Big Green attack. Dartmouth rattled off three goals in the period, including two in the final minute, to send the Crimson to the locker room down, 7-3.

“It was obviously a very disappointing second quarter,” Tillman said. “I give Dartmouth a lot of credit. They controlled play.”

After the Big Green quickly gained an 8-3 lead in the third, Dartmouth displayed crisp ball movement on its next possession. Kip Dooley took a pass in front of the net and put the ball through Krieger’s legs.

Down 9-3, the Crimson saw itself behind and again needing to make a run.

“Staring down six goals, obviously it’s a lot to think about,” Tillman said. “But our guys did a great job. No one panicked, everyone stuck together, everybody believed we were going to win the game.”

And win the game they did. Gibbons got the Harvard offense going, splitting two Big Green defenders for a goal.

The Crimson then scored twice in 12 seconds—a backdoor goal by sophomore Kevin Vaughn followed by Gibbons’ third score, a line drive he fired over Campbell’s left shoulder off an assist from Cohen.

Gibbons then reciprocated by assisting on Cohen’s second goal. Eight seconds later, freshman Alex White scored to bring Harvard within one.

With 23 seconds remaining in the quarter, Dartmouth responded with a score from Chris Costabile, but though the third period ended with a 10-8 Big Green lead, momentum was on Harvard’s side.

“I think when things went bad, we started worrying about what was going bad, and then we just got back to doing what we wanted to do,” Tillman said.

The Crimson opened scoring in the final period when sophomore Andrew Pataki scored his first goal of the year off a pass from classmate Evan Roth.

The Crimson was then able to tie up the game when freshman Jeff Molinari darted two defenders and bounced the ball past Campbell. Cohen put the team ahead with his third goal, and freshman Jack Doyle added the eventual game-winner.

After a Dartmouth goal pulled the Big Green within one late in the contest, Terry White provided the dagger, giving Harvard the 13-11 win. Once again, the Crimson had pulled off an improbable comeback.

“We’ve shown it a couple times this year,” Cohen said. “And I think that’s something really special about our team—no matter how many goals we’re down, we can come back.”