No. 15 Men's Lacrosse Suffers First Loss to No. 20 Hofstra

The No. 15 Harvard men’s lacrosse team suffered its first loss of the season to No. 20 Hofstra in a defensive battle on Saturday afternoon at Soldiers Field Stadium.  Despite a hat trick from senior attackman Jeff Cohen, the low-scoring contest ended in a Crimson defeat, 7-6.

“[Hofstra] came out and played hard,” co-captain Terry White said. “We played really hard but didn’t match their intensity yesterday.”

Freshman attackman Keegan Michel won the opening faceoff for Harvard (2-1), but Hofstra (2-2) controlled the play early on, jumping out to a 3-0 lead.  The first Pride goal came 2:56 into the quarter, followed by a second less than five minutes later.

After Hofstra’s third unanswered goal, the Crimson finally responded. Harvard worked the ball up the field into offensive territory, where a pair of freshmen put Harvard on the scoreboard. Michel battled off two defensemen and sent the ball across the face of the goal to midfielder freshman Sean Mahon, who scored the first goal of his college career.

“It’s great to see our freshmen stepping up,” White said. “I think that goal will give [Mahon] confidence moving forward.”

Still, the Crimson trailed 3-1 as the first quarter ended.

The Pride won the faceoff beginning the second quarter and drove straight up the middle of the field.  It took just six seconds for the Pride to add to its lead and retake the three-goal edge.

Later, after a Hofstra shot and a save from junior goalkeeper Harry Krieger, the Crimson gained possession of the ball and carried it into its offensive half. Cohen notched his first goal of the game with a powerful shot to the upper left-hand corner of the goal to cut the deficit to two.

“Jeff finds ways to score clutch goals when we need them most,” junior defenseman Brad Cappellini said.  “His contributions often swing the momentum back in our favor.”

Two minutes later, Cohen found himself in front of the goal again and netted his second unassisted goal of the game, once again finding the net’s upper-left corner.

“[Cohen] has really stepped up,” Cappellini said.  “It is a true testament to his hard work as an individual and the dedication of the senior class as a whole.”

Minutes later, after a missed shot for Harvard, Hofstra recovered the ball and took it the length of the field. Hofstra junior Adrian Sorichetti found the back of the net to give the Pride a 5-3 advantage.

The Crimson won the following faceoff with 1:30 left to play in the half.  With a mere four seconds to play, Cohen completed a second-quarter hat trick. He took a pass from behind the cage from sophomore attackman Carl Zimmerman and fired a shot into the left side of the net, sending Harvard into the half down one.

Just under two minutes into the second half, sophomore midfielder Eric Slingerland picked up a ground ball and the Harvard attack soon capitalized.

Co-captain Kevin Vaughan tied the game on a dodge from behind the cage and slipped a shot past Pride senior goaltender Andrew Gvozden. With 12:46 to play in the quarter, the game was tied at five—the first time the Crimson had been level since early in the first quarter.

But Hofstra’s Ian Braddish soon responded to Vaughan’s goal, firing a shot past Krieger to put the Pride ahead, 6-5, with 8:31 left in the third quarter.

Hofstra carried that lead into the fourth quarter. With just under eight minutes to play in the game, Crimson junior defenseman Jason Gonos forced a turnover and picked up a ground ball.  Slingerland took a pass and drove up the middle of the field before firing a shot past Gvozden to tie the game at six.

Hofstra responded promptly. Less than a minute later, Ryan Reilly drove up the middle of the field and scored what proved to be the game-winning goal with 6:52 to play.

The Crimson’s best chance at an equalizer came with just under two minutes left in the game, as junior midfielder Ryan Stevens’ shot hit off the post.

Harvard picked up two penalties soon after and was unable to score a man-down goal as time ran out.

Harvard outshot its opponent, 31-25, and picked up 20 ground balls to Hofstra’s 18, but the Crimson never held the lead.