King’s Historic Performance Propels Harvard Men’s Lacrosse Past Marquette 20-16

The No. 12 Harvard men’s lacrosse team kept the winning train rolling on Saturday after clinching its first home victory over the Marquette Golden Eagles 20-16. Following the team’s upset victory against No. 11 Syracuse, all eyes were on the Crimson to see if it could keep its streak alive; Head Coach Gerry Byrne’s team did not disappoint.

With just one more weekend before conference play kicks off, tallying another win was vital for Harvard (3-1) as it looks to solidify its spot as a top-four team within the difficult Ivy League. Byrne’s squad didn’t falter against Marquette—which was a must-win game for the team—but the score was certainly closer than Crimson fans would have liked.

Senior attackman Sam King showed fans why he’s a top-pick for almost every PLL roster post-graduation, stepping up with seven goals and two assists that will forever solidify his place amongst the greatest athletes to wear a Harvard men’s lacrosse jersey. The game against Marquette will be special to King as it marked his 100th career goal and 200th career point, showing why he was at the top of the pre-season Tewaaraton Award watch list.

Differently from its game against Syracuse, Harvard took the field with the upperhand—a designator that it typically does not like, preferring to be the scrappy underdog against top-teams like the Orange—which at times proved challenging as the Crimson struggled to dominate the pace of play. Causing it to at times not play to its full potential, the team let up in key moments that allowed the Golden Eagles to claw their way back into contention.

No blood was drawn for the first six minutes of play, but a decisive pole-goal for senior defender Logan Darrin—the first of his career for the Greenwich, Conn. native—sent the Harvard bench erupting in cheers, and was the catalyst needed to get another Harvard tally on the board, this time from junior middie Logan Ip on the assist from junior attackman Teddy Malone.

With just under 10 minutes on the clock, Darrin saw a gap in the center of the field on the clear—which was the result of a stellar, point-blank save from freshman goalie Graham Stevens—and decided to take it himself, showing off his wheels as the Marquette defense failed to communicate through the slide, leaving him with time and space to rip it past the goalie.

Marquette would strike back to make it 2-1 in Harvard’s favor with about 5:30 on the board, with Marquette’s offensive quarterback Bobby O’Grady backdooring his defender for the cross-fan pass upon recognizing that his defender was caught ball watching. The Golden Eagles would capitalize on those lapses several times throughout the game, with Harvard getting caught a step behind its cutters which allowed the heads-up Marquette offense to thread the needle through the middle for easy one-on-one takes against Stevens.

The theme of the game was that Harvard made its success harder than it had to be. Heading into the contest, the Crimson ranked second-to-last in the nation in face off percentage with just under 30%, and its performance against the Golden Eagles was no better. Winning just 14-of-40 clamps, translating to about 35%, the Harvard defense was put to the test as it had to mitigate Marquette’s offense—which saw a disproportionate amount of settled six-on-six play. Senior defender Martin Nelson stepped up with two caused turnovers and two ground balls, and sophomore defender Charlie Muller proved incredibly lethal with four ground balls and three CTOs.

Byrne rotated in sophomore Owen Umansky—who was only able to win one of his seven takes— freshman Trevor Sardis—who won zero of his four takes—and freshman Jackson Henehan, who has been Byrne’s go-to this season. Henehan did comparatively better than his compatriots, clinching about 44% of his takes as well as notching his first career goal to end the first quarter. Assistant Coach Mike Terranova—who is primarily responsible for face offs and goaltending—certainly needs to step up the team’s performance as remaining in the second-worst position in the entire country continues to make winning offensive possession time for the squad more challenging than it should be.

Despite making big stops across the field, lapses in concentration on the defensive end left Marquette attackmen open for cross-crease snipes as the Harvard defense failed to communicate through the second and third slides. Perhaps a result of the amount of time spent in the backfield, the defense was forced repeatedly to stand tall as Marquette wisely utilized the entirety of its shot clock to tire it out. However, watching the backside was a point of weakness for Harvard, and will certainly be something the team needs to improve on as it looks toward Michigan this weekend.

Not tallying any points in the first, King came alive two minutes into the second, sniping an outside righty rip past the Marquette goalie on the feed from senior middie Owen Gaffney. Erupting in cheers, the crowd went wild as it was announced that the goal was the 100th of the senior’s storied career. The next goal would come from King as well, this time on the cross-fan feed from sophomore attackman Jack Speidel.

“We were dodging hard offensively, we attacked and moved the ball and that was good for us,” King said. “It was simple but it worked out, and we played well.”

Despite the emotion from the Crimson bench as it embraced King, Harvard took its foot off the gas. In the span of one minute, the Cambridge team went from a comfortable six-goal lead to just a three-goal buffer. All coming from Marqeutte’s Carsen Brandt, the quick succession of shots revealed weaknesses in the Crimson defense.

The first of the three tallies resulted from an unsettled situation off the face off, with Marquette capitalizing on Harvard’s inability to cover the off-side cutter in the fray. Just 26 seconds later, Brandt took it himself, bull-dodging into his matchup with the sophomore SSDM Andrew Glinski. Taking advantage of the isolation wide on the left wing, Brandt leveled his shoulder into Glinski’s stick with so much force that he actually snapped it in half as he got the step underneath the sophomore. Unable to send the slide fast enough to help Glinski recover, Brandt was able to send the ball squarely past Stevens.

The third came from a slick face dodge from the same high-left wing as Brandt once again took advantage of the short-stick matchup, slickly sending sophomore middie Jack Petersen flailing as he raced down the alley without drawing a slide for another easy goal. Three proved too much for Byrne as he smartly took a time out to help his guys recover and talk through the defensive lapses.

These momentum shifts would plague Harvard throughout the contest as it was unable to safely maintain its lead, constantly building its buffer before allowing Marquette to sneak its way back into contention on these defensive miscommunications. The Crimson certainly had all of the building blocks in place, but it needs to string together 60 minutes of cohesive lacrosse if it hopes to succeed against the tough teams it will face later this season.

“We’ve gotta continue to win the ground ball battle and minimize those sorts of mistakes, and those ground balls are big momentum changes,” King said. “So, if we can take control of that, that will help.”

Despite ending the first half up 11-6 and controlling play for the first 18 minutes of the game, the team struggled as it took the field following the ten-minute break at the half. The last two scores would fall in favor of the Crimson, with King scoring a phenomenal fast-break goal on the assist from Henehan following the face off win with about 9:20 on the clock. There would be no more celebration from either bench for nine minutes until Harvard ended the scoring drought on a man-up snip from Ip, who wisely held his space on the doorstep where he was met by the needle-threading assist from King, who fed him from the top of the arc for the easy finish.

The third quarter would fall in favor of the visiting Golden Eagles, who out-scored Harvard 5-3 through those 15 minutes of play. What would shift the momentum back into Harvard’s camp in the last quarter, though, was the team’s hustle. The squad’s ride came out in full force on Saturday as the attack made Marquette work for each clear. Holding the visitor to just 13-of-21, the Crimson was able to work back for some much-needed possession time that allowed Harvard to create momentum. Up by just three goals 14-11, finding its footing would prove essential if the Crimson was to clinch what was meant to be an easy victory heading into the contest.

“We failed to pick up the ball when it was on the ground which gave them a lot of extra chances,” said senior SSDM Ray Dearth about what went wrong in the third quarter. “It’s really hard to play a lot of back-to-back defensive possessions. We just gave up too many of those at the start and towards the end of the third.”

King notched the first three goals for Harvard in the fourth—with Marquette’s Noah Snyder breaking up his hat-trick with one of his own about two minutes into the quarter—the first of which came off a feed from junior middie John Aurandt IV. Aurandt realized that King’s defender was hung up in front of the crease, which allowed him to creep around the right side of the net. Snyder’s goal somewhat mirrored King’s as he took advantage of junior SSDM Finn Pokorny getting caught in front of the crease on the switch/stay, which allowed him time to switch hands and rip the ball past Stevens.

The next face off would go for Harvard as Dearth—who posted five ground balls and two CTOs—snagged a bouncing ground ball off the clamp with one hand before racing downfield and out of pressure. Harvard smartly settled the ball, not allowing its nerves to get the best of it on the jump. Working the ball around the perimeter, King would find himself with possession at X where he lowered his right shoulder and took advantage of his defender once again getting caught in front of the cage. Making contact with the pole, King popped off the defender, finding space as he sent the ball flying.

While not on the stat sheet, the play was the result of quick thinking by Speidell, who realized that King had space on the right side of the crease. In his typical spot floating through the middle, Speidell showed his lacrosse-IQ as he brought his defender with him across the fan, muddling in the middle which got King’s defender caught in traffic, and allowed the attackman the space to curl in towards the cage.

Now 16-12, Harvard showed its might, finally lighting the spark that would send it up by an additional two goals to lead 18-12. Marquette would rally back, though, cutting the Crimson’s lead to four goals with a minute to play.

With about 35 seconds left in the game and possession in Harvard’s stick, Byrne called a timeout to get the ball into King’s stick. With 199 career points, which had him tied at sixth-most all-time with former Crimson standout Morgan Cheek (whose brothers Hayden and Watson were also members of the Harvard team), the senior could taste another milestone. Setting up on the outside right wing, number seven found himself double-teamed as Marquette made its last-ditch effort to get the ball down to its attacking end.

Leaving the goal open on the 10-man ride, Marquette made the risky move to sacrifice the open net for a double team, which King made easy work of. Fighting his way through the double, King barrelled down behind the cage, splitting his defenders down the middle before curling around the crease for the quick shot on the open net. The stands erupted in cheers as King became just one of five Harvard players to ever reach 200 points.

But, in typical fashion, the Crimson let off the gas once again, this time allowing the Golden Eagles to score just six seconds following King’s historic strike on a fast-break off the face off.

The last 20 seconds would wind down undramatically, with Harvard celebrating its win. However, Byrne’s squad needs to bring its energy for four solid quarters as it faces off against a scrappy Michigan team that has proved a pesky foe for the Crimson in past years. While unranked in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll, the team sits around the 21st spot following a tight 8-7 loss against No. 9 Duke. Beyond almost upsetting the then-ranked No. 7 Blue Devils, Michigan made light work of Marquette in its season-opener, putting on an offensive clinic that saw the Wolverines decisively win 14-1.

All this to say, the win against Marquette certainly helps solidify Harvard’s ranking, yet the trouble the team faced in almost beating itself against the Golden Eagles cannot prove to be an issue as it heads into tougher contests against top Ivy teams.

The Crimson will welcome Michigan to Jordan Field this upcoming Saturday, with the first whistle blowing at noon. Catch the action live, or stream it on ESPN+.

—Staff writer Katharine A. Forst can be reached at katharine.forst@thecrimson.com.