Dwyer Lifts Men's Lacrosse to Third Straight Overtime Victory

Entering its third game of the season on Saturday afternoon, the Harvard men’s lacrosse team did not have a single regulation win to its name. However, after four quarters passed against UMass, the Crimson still had not suffered its first regulation loss either.

In fact, in its unprecedented third consecutive overtime game, Harvard had a chance to move to 3-0 on the year. After defeating Villanova and Holy Cross in extra periods last week, the Crimson found itself looking for yet another sudden-death goal against the Minutemen on the road.

Unlike on Tuesday, when it needed two overtimes to put away the Crusaders, Harvard scored the winner against UMass only 10 seconds after the restart. Midfielder and captain Sean Mahon picked up the ground ball from the faceoff and quickly sent a pass upfield to sophomore attackman Morgan Cheek. Without wasting any time, Cheek set up senior attackman Devin Dwyer with an opportunity in front of the goal.

Dwyer knew he could get a shot past Minutemen sophomore goalie Dan Dolan, not just because he had already tallied four goals earlier in the game, but also because Dolan was his old high school teammate.

Even with the heightened stakes, Dwyer didn’t hesitate. He buried the shot and ended the game.

With the 10-9 victory, the No. 14/15 Crimson (3-0) secured its best start to a season since 2002. The game itself, meanwhile, marked the first time in the team’s 136-year history that it played overtime in three straight contests. On the other hand, UMass (1-2) now looks to rediscover the form that helped it rout No. 11/11 Ohio State, 16-9, last weekend.

For much of the game on Saturday, it seemed as if UMass had brought the same intensity that fueled its success over the Buckeyes a week prior. In front of a crowd of almost 1,000 fans at Garber Field, the Minutemen pounded their way to a 6-3 lead at halftime.

After falling behind 3-1 early in the game, they found the back of the net five straight times in the second quarter. Sophomore midfielder Buddy Carr punctuated the run with a power play goal as his team turned a 3-3 tie in a commanding 6-3 advantage with three tallies in less than a minute.

“The faceoffs in the second quarter really hurt us,” Crimson coach Chris Wojcik ’96 said. “But we knew if we kept hustling and winning ground balls, we could get back into the game.”

On the other end, Minutemen junior goalie D.J. Smith stifled the Harvard attack with four saves. At halftime, however, it was Smith, and not Crimson sophomore goalie Robert Shaw, that was substituted.

“When we were scouting them, we saw that they usually tried to switch it up with a righty and lefty goalie,” Dwyer said. “It made us take some different angles in the second half, but it didn’t affect us much overall.

In the third quarter, UMass had several chances to pull away, but Dwyer caught fire to keep Harvard in the game almost singlehandedly. Each time the Minutemen seized a four-goal lead, Dwyer got the point back within two minutes. He went on to score three goals in a span of less than seven minutes, and made sure his team entered the fourth quarter still only down by three goals.

Then, just as it did in its previous two games, the Crimson dominated the final period. With a flurry of goals, Harvard tied the game with 5:07 to play. The team has now outscored its opponents 16-6 in the fourth quarter and overtime.

“Part of it is our conditioning, which we have a lot of confidence in,” Dwyer said. “But mostly, it’s the situations we’ve been in, trailing at the end of games, and having a sense of urgency.”

UMass had its last good chance to win the game with three seconds remaining, but Shaw made a save to preserve the 9-9 tie. The stage was then set for Dwyer’s dramatic game-winner, and he delivered.

“We’ve been down for large portions of our games this season, but the team has shown a lot of resolve,” Wojcik said. “Fortunately, so far, we’ve been able to get the right results.”

—Staff writer George Hu can be reached at yianshenhu@college.harvard.edu.