Men’s Lax Continues Slide With 16-11 Loss to No. 17 Notre Dame

The Harvard men’s lacrosse team dropped its fourth straight game, falling to No. 17 Notre Dame 16-11 on Saturday.

The Irish (9-4) came out firing in the second quarter, scoring eight goals to finish the half with a 10-4 lead.

The Crimson (4-9, 1-4 Ivy) managed to outscore Notre Dame 7-6 in the second half, but was never able to really threaten the large Irish lead.

“I’m really pissed off with the way we played,” said tri-captain defender Andrew Crocco. “We were just making stupid mistakes at both ends of the field.”

Harvard lost despite outshooting Notre Dame 36-32 and holding the edge in faceoffs, 16-14.

The Irish simply capitalized on its scoring chances while Harvard did not. The Crimson scored on just 31 percent of its shots, while Notre Dame connected on half its opportunities and Harvard junior goaltender Jake McKenna recorded just five saves.

Scoring woes have been a constant problem for the Crimson, which cited shooting as one of the main areas that it had to work on at the beginning of the season (.210 scoring percentage).

“They seemed to be getting almost all of their goals off of transitions and fast breaks, which put our defense in an awkward situation and gave them a lot of open shots right on the crease which Jake had no chance of stopping,” Crocco said.

A bright spot was freshman attack Sean Kane, who led the Crimson with four goals. Kane, who has won back-to-back Ivy Rookie of the Week honors, scored the Crimson’s first goal and two of the last three.

“Sean’s a great guy to have on the field,” Crocco said. “What’s really great is that he’s not afraid to make mistakes. And though he does make them, when you get a four-goal performance out of him, those mistakes are worth it.”

Senior midfielder Jay Wich and junior attack Anders Johnson each added two goals and an assist.

Crocco felt that Notre Dame was not as challenging as the other ranked teams Harvard has faced this season. The Crimson has lost to No. 12 Cornell, No. 4 UMass and No. 2 Princeton by deficits of one, five and four goals, respectively.

“I don’t think Notre Dame had anybody on their team who was a better athlete than the guy they matched up against,” Crocco said.

Harvard now enters its final week of the season disappointed after winning just one Ivy League game, against Brown.

The Crimson travels to Colgate (8-6) on Tuesday night and Dartmouth (10-2, 4-1) on Friday. The Big Green upset Princeton 13-6 this weekend in Dartmouth’s first win over the Tigers since 1988, forcing a three-way tie atop the Ivy League standings.

“I’m tired of getting punked,” Crocco said. “We’re not going to be fighting for playoffs or anything like that anymore. I just want to go out there and beat someone up.”

—Staff writer Evan R. Johnson can be reached at erjohns@fas.harvard.edu.