Harvard Holds On, Tops Georgetown

In each of the past two seasons, the Georgetown Hoyas have defeated the Harvard men’s lacrosse team by one goal.

But yesterday, the tides finally turned, and it was the Crimson (2-1) that emerged victorious by a single point, pulling out a 16-15 victory over No. 20 Georgetown (2-2) on a chilly day at Soldiers Field Stadium.

“It was a really hard-fought game,” said Harvard coach Chris Wojcik ’96. “Both teams played their hearts out.”

The Hoyas started the scoring 1:55 into the contest, when junior midfielder Zack Angel cut across the middle and fired a shot over Crimson sophomore goalie Harry Krieger’s shoulder to put Georgetown ahead, 1-0. But Harvard would go on to dominate the rest of the quickly-paced period.

Junior Jeff Cohen responded 30 seconds later with a game-tying score. A half-minute after that, with a Crimson man-up opportunity winding down, co-captain Dean Gibbons and sophomore attackman Peter Schwartz passed the ball back-and-forth before Gibbons fired on net, beating Hoyas senior goalie Jack Davis to put Harvard ahead.

Just six seconds later, after Harvard won the ensuing faceoff, Gibbons took a pass from freshman Eric Slingerland and scored.

At 10:44, Georgetown attackman Rickey Mirabito came around the net from the right side and fired a groundball shot past Krieger to cut the lead to 3-2.

After taking a pass from junior co-captain Kevin Vaughan, Schwartz then picked up with his first goal of the contest from far out on the right side to put the Crimson up 4-2 with 8:24 remaining in the period. Three minutes later, sophomore Alex White took a cross-field pass from junior Terry White, and Alex White, cutting across the middle moving left, fired it past Davis on the run.

Hoya Stu Shannon was then able to take advantage of a Sam Steyer pushing penalty and beat Krieger for a man-up goal. With 3:24 left in the first period, after a long Harvard possession, Vaughan, moving towards the Hoyas’ net, hit Cohen right in front, and Cohen, diving low from the left, fired it in to put Harvard up 6-3.

The Crimson would tack on one more goal before the first period was up, when freshman midfielder Daniel Eipp came from behind the net to beat Davis with 1:30 to go.

“Both offenses played really well,” Wojcik said. “We had trouble at stretches stopping them, they had trouble at stretches stopping us.”

After the high-scoring opening quarter, both defenses came out much stronger in the second, with the first goal not coming until 11 minutes into the period. After Krieger made a big save on a shot attempt by Georgetown’s Travis Comeau, the goalie hit Schwartz, who went streaking down the sideline. Schwartz threw a cross-field pass to sophomore Jack Doyle, who put the ball past Davis after finding himself wide-open in front of the net.

But the Hoyas responded with four unanswered goals. Attackman Brian Casey came up the middle and scored unassisted despite a lot of contact at 2:43, and Mirabito added his second goal under a minute later.

With 54 seconds to play in the period, Mirabito came around the net and found teammate Davey Emala open in front, and Emala beat Krieger to make the score 8-6. Just 10 seconds later, Emala intercepted a Harvard pass attempt back to Krieger, and catching the goalie out of position, threw it past him to cut the Crimson lead to one heading into the half.

“In the second quarter we got a little stagnant,” Wojcik said. “We started holding the ball too much. At halftime we met, talked about some of the things we were going to adjust, and I think we came out and offensively moved the ball really well.”

Four minutes into the third, junior Mark Scalise streaked up the right side and sent a cross-field pass to Gibbons, who went low and beat Davis to put Harvard back up by two. Comeau responded with an unassisted goal on a fast break at 9:07, but Eipp struck right back with a score of his own to make it 10-8 Crimson.

At 5:20, Doyle came around his defender moving right and beat Davis unassisted to put Harvard up three, but Georgetown would fight back again.

Comeau beat Krieger high after a give-and-go with Mirabito under a minute later. With 3:43 remaining in the period, Hoyas midfielder Max Seligmann came around to the left and dished off a short forward pass to Emala, who was able to push it past Krieger despite a big hit from a Harvard defenseman. Emala hit the post on his next shot attempt, but was able to pick up the bounce-back of his own rebound and fire it home, tying the game at 11 with 51 seconds to go in the third.

The Crimson retook the lead 3:25 into the fourth. Senior attack Matt Hull came down the end line and passed off to Alex White, who hit Cohen in front of the net for the goal. Thirty-two seconds later, Gibbons came around from the right, spun, and fired over Davis’ right shoulder to give Harvard a two-score lead.

Angle responded for Georgetown at 10:04 after spinning and beating Krieger high from the left. But Cohen would find Vaughan cutting from the right side behind the net, and Vaughan would score to put the Crimson ahead 14-12 with 6:16 remaining in the contest.

After a Davis body save two minutes later, Alex White picked up the rebound and put it back in to make it 15-12. Shortly thereafter, Eipp came around the net on the left side and found freshman Eric Slingerland wide-open on the right, who scored with little effort.

“Sixteen goals is great against anyone, but especially against Georgetown,” Cohen said. “Their defense was flying around. This is something we’re really proud of.”

The Hoyas would not go quietly, as Emala, Dan McKinney, and Casey added scores to cut the lead to 16-15 with seven seconds to go. But in the ensuing faceoff after Casey’s goal, Georgetown couldn’t handle a groundball, and Harvard held on for the victory.

Gibbons led the Crimson with four scores, while Cohen added three, and Eipp and Doyle had two. Emala had five goals to pace the Hoyas. Harvard outshot Georgetown, 47-40, but the Hoyas won 21 of 33 faceoffs, had four fewer turnovers, and owned a 33-32 advantage in groundballs.

“Today was obviously a huge win,” Cohen said. “The last two years they got us by one down at their place. It was nice to get a little bit of revenge.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.