Primm’s Overtime Tally Lifts M. Lacrosse over Irish

When Notre Dame forward Brian Giordano gave the Fighting Irish a 6-5 lead with just 44 seconds left to play at Jordan Field Saturday, all signs pointed to another disapointing loss for the Harvard men’s lacrosse team.

This time, however, things would be different.

After sophomore midfielder Jeff Gottschall tied the game with just 15 seconds ramining, junior Matt Primm’s goal at 3:03 of overtime gave the Crimson a dramatic come-from-behind 7-6 win over Notre Dame (4-8).

“We’ve battled all season, and things haven’t always gone our away,” sophomore midfielder Alex Vap said. “It’s nice to finally get a little bit of luck.”

With Saturday’s victory, Harvard (7-8, 0-5 Ivy) kept its hopes for a winning season alive. The Crismon have now won two straight after a disastorous midseason strech of seven consecutive losses.

Harvard’s last-second rally began with the faceoff after Notre Dame’s go-ahead goal. Vap won the must-win draw, teaming with senior midfielder Derek Nowak to force the ball from a Notre Dame player who initially had posession. Had the Fighting Irish won the draw, it would likley have run out the clock.

Instead, Harvard established its offense and worked the ball around to Gotschall on the far side of the net. The sophomore fired a shot over the left shoulder of Notre Dame goaltender Nick Antol with 15.6 seconds on the clock, sending the game into overtime.

“To know you’ve outplayed a team and to be down a goal with 45 seconds left was very tough and disapointing,” freshman attacker Mike McBride said. “When Gottschall scored, I knew we were going to win.”

Vap won another crucial facoff to start the sudden-death overtime period, winning the ball over to Nowak, who set up Harvard’s offense.

The Crimson planned to get the ball to Primm behind the net, who would then find either McBride or Gottschall coming free off a pick. The Fighting Irish read the play well, however, and Primm could find no one open in front.

So Primm just took the ball himself, coming from behind the net and beating his defender and Antol for the game-winning goal.

“The defense was expecting him to go left, but he just faked his guy out, made a nice hard move and finished strong,” McBride said.

Saturday’s victory was extra sweet for Harvard defensemen Joe Nejman and Hani Rimlawi. Both players are transfers from Notre Dame—Rimlawi joined the team this season while Nejman first played for Harvard last year as a sophomore.

“They were psyched to play,” McBride said. “Those two were very focused all day, and it helped out some of the other players.”

Harvard held its opponent under seven goals for the third consecutive game, after doing so just once in its first ten games of the year. McBride attributes this improvement to better ball-control by Harvard’s offense.

“Our defensive depth is definitely a problem,” McBride said. “We’ve possessed the ball a lot more in the past games, and it takes a lot of pressure off our defense.”

Harvard’s defensive corps kept the team in the game early, holding off the Fighting Irish attack as the Crimson offense struggled throughout most of the game.

“Our defense played really well today, while our offense did not play our best game by far,” Vap said. “We scrapped a lot and got goals off of transitions of turnovers.”

“If we shot a lot better we’d be blowing teams out,” McBride added.

As usual in Harvard’s recent games, both teams struggled to score early. Fighting Irish defenseman Eric Simon scored the first period’s only goal, beating Crimson goalie Jake McKenna just over two minutes into the game.

Notre Dame extended its lead to 2-0 on a goal with 10:16 remaining, but Gottschall would put Harvard on the scoreboard just 45 seconds later, scoring off of an assist from Primm. Primm tied the score at two with 7:39 remaining, and the teams remained deadlocked at halftime.

Harvard co-captain Jim Christian gave the Crimson its first lead of the day with 12:12 left in the third, but Fighting Irish midfielder Devin Ryan would tie the score with just 5.5 seconds to play in the period.

Notre Dame pulled ahead early in the fourth, but Harvard came roaring back, as McBride and Nowak scored goals ten seconds apart to retake the lead at 5-4. McBride tied the game off a feed from junior attacker Jay Wich with 13:10 remaining. The freshman attacker would finish the afternoon with a career-high four points.

“My defensemen lost me, and I kind of just snuck back-door,” McBride said. “Jay Wich made a great feed and found me right on the doorstop.”

Seconds later, Nowak gave Harvard the 6-5 lead on an unassisted goal.

Ryan would tie the score with 6:16 remaining in regulation, seting the stage for Harvard’s late-game heroics.

Harvard will seek to extend its winning streak to three games when it hosts Colgate tomorrow night. The Crimson’s last chance for an Ivy win will come in its season finale Saturday at home against Dartmouth.

“We’ve worked too hard this year to give up,” Vap said. “We’ve got two more to go, and we’re going to finish 2-0.”

M. LACROSSE 7, NOTRE DAME 6

at Jordan Field

Notre Dame(4-8) 1 1 1 3 0 — 6

Harvard (7-8) 0 2 1 3 1 — 7

Scoring: ND Goals: Giordano 2, Ryan 2, Flandina 1, Simon 1. ND Assists: Flandina 1, Malakoff 1. Scoring: H Goals: Primm 2, Gottschall 2, Christian 1, McBride 1. H Assists: McBride 3, Primm 1, Wich 1. Shots: ND 30, H 38. Saves: ND Antol 18, H McKenna 12. Ground Balls: ND 17, H 29. Faceoffs: ND 5, H 12. Extra Man: ND 0/2, H 1/1.