M. Lacrosse Falls Twice Over Break

After a slow start doomed the Harvard men’s lacrosse team in its Ivy opener against Penn last Saturday, the Crimson got the spark it needed in its home date against Quinnipiac on Tuesday, as sophomore attackman Sean Kane netted three goals in his first start of the season—including the first two goals of the 9-3 Harvard rout.

A starting spot was available at attack due to the absence of junior attackman Mike McBride, who missed the Quinnipiac game with a shoulder injury and played only sparingly in Saturday’s matchup with Denver.

“Coach [Anderson] asked me to step up and take over [Mike’s] role, settling down the offense,” Kane said. “He’s a leader. Coach asked me to kind of do that and get everybody to work together.”

Kane added a second hat trick against No. 16 Denver (5-2), but the Pioneers capitalized on a 4-0 run to end the third quarter and pulled away for a 10-7 win. In total, Kane scored seven goals over the break, but the Crimson (4-3, 1-1 Ivy) could not capitalize on his strong performance, posting a 1-2 record for the week.

NO. 16 DENVER 10, HARVARD 7

Midway through the third period on Saturday, it appeared that Harvard might be on its way to handing a second top-20 opponent a home loss.

After senior midfielder Jeff Gottschall hit sophomore attackman Steve Cohen who beat Denver goaltender Brian Sanders with 4:19 remaining in the third, the Crimson regained the lead 6-5 and appeared to have the momentum.

Over the next three minutes, the Pioneers not only grabbed the momentum back, they took control of the contest. Denver scored four goals in that span—three of which were unassisted—as the Pioneers turned a 6-5 deficit into a 9-6 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

The four-goal run came during the only period in which the Crimson lost the faceoff battle. Harvard could only control 2-8 faceoffs in the third, while grabbing 10-13 during the other three quarters. The Crimson also fell in the ground ball department, scooping up only 5-16 in the third, despite holding a 34-32 advantage for the match.

These two factors combined to give the Pioneers an advantage in time of possession, allowing Denver to unleash 18 shots in the period.

Sophomore midfielder Jake Samuelson created his own opportunity and finished with 8:14 remaining in the fourth to close the gap to two. But Denver midfielder Jeff Biggs shut the door on the comeback bid, as he scored to push the Pioneer advantage back to three with just under seven minutes remaining.

The Crimson grabbed the lead 2:32 into the contest as freshman attackman Brian Mahler finished a feed from classmate Greg Cohen. With just over 10 minutes remaining in the quarter, sophomore midfielder Tom Boylan scored to give Harvard a 2-1 lead. The Crimson maintained this slim margin for over nine minutes, but the Pioneers netted two goals in the final 44 seconds to seize a 3-2 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

Harvard responded in the second period as Kane tallied two goals—his second coming with just 2:05 left in the half—giving the Crimson a 4-3 lead. Once again Denver struck in the waning moments of the quarter, as midfielder Scott Davidson scored with just 18 seconds remaining to knot the game at four heading into halftime.

The Pioneers snatched the lead back just 1:05 into the third quarter as attackman Matt Brown found the net. Later in the third, Kane responded for Harvard, finishing his second consecutive hat trick off a feed from Samuelson bringing the sides even at five.

HARVARD 9, QUINNIPIAC 3

After missing significant action due to a hamstring injury, Kane made a triumphant return to the starting lineup last Tuesday on Jordan Field, recording a hat trick to lead the Harvard men’s lacrosse team past Quinnipiac, 9-3.

Kane—the leading goal scorer for the Crimson last season—recorded all three of his tallies in the first half, as Harvard stormed out to 7-1 lead at halftime and never looked back against the Bobcats (1-6).

Kane lead by example, as he scored two nearly identical diving goals in the first quarter.

“It was nice to get going early and get a goal,” said Kane. “I haven’t really played attack that much at Harvard, [but] I played it in high school.”

Ahead 2-1 early in the second quarter, the Crimson took over the game with a string of six consecutive goals spanning into the second half.

Mahler—playing midfielder due to Harvard’s depth at attack—began the Crimson onslaught. Just moments after ringing a shot off the post, Mahler took a pass from Greg Cohen and bounced a shot past Quinnipiac goalie James Nastro.

Gottschall pushed the score to 5-1 with consecutive goals. After Gottschall converted a pass from Mahler, Kane found Greg Cohen with a blind pass, who fed Gottschall in front for the score.

With time running out in the half, Harvard put the game out of reach. Sophomore defensive midfielder Peter Doyle picked up a ground ball and fed Kane, who sprinted into the zone and ripped a high shot past Nastro.

On the ensuing faceoff, freshman midfielder Adam Mahfouda scooped up the ground ball, bounced off defenders like a pinball and scored an incredible goal to give the Crimson a 7-1 halftime lead.

With the game basically in hand, the second half saw a lot less action, as each team could manage just two goals after the break.

“We made some mistakes in the second half and really didn’t finish what we started,” Kane said. “We really would have loved to score a couple more goals.”

Sophomore defensive midfielder Brian Wannop echoed the sentiments of his teammate.

“In the first half, it was a solid effort, but we kind of let up in the second half,” he said. “We started making some mental mistakes.”

Gottschall recorded both of the second half goals for Harvard, giving him four tallies on the day.

Despite the lack of offense in the second half, the Crimson defense continued to stifle the Bobcat offense, which managed just 22 shots on the day. In goal, captain Jake McKenna made 13 saves, recording an impressive .813 save percentage.

“Having Jake in goal, you know you can force them to just [take] outside shots,” Wannop said. “Something we pride ourselves on is having a strong defense. We take care of that end of the field, and hopefully good things happen on the other end.”

PENN 7, HARVARD 5

Fortunately for the Harvard men’s lacrosse team, there are no more trips to Pennsylvania on the schedule this season.

The Crimson dropped its Ivy League opener to Penn (4-3, 1-1) last Saturday in Philadelphia by a score of 7-5. Harvard’s only previous loss this season had come at the hands of Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pa.

The Crimson was hindered by a slow start which allowed the Quakers generate a 3-0 lead in the first quarter.

“We just came out flat and they jumped [out] to a lead,” Wannop said. “It’s something we need to work on. We’ve had trouble in road games in the past just not starting out well.”

A man-up goal by McBride with just six seconds remaining in the period pulled Harvard within two, but Penn would restore the three-goal cushion early in the second quarter.

The Quakers outshot the Crimson 9-5 in the first quarter, including a 7-3 advantage in shots on goal.

“We didn’t really bring it to the table,” Kane said. “Once we got behind, we really didn’t deal with that. We got our heads down and really didn’t bring the energy that we wanted to.”

Despite the early deficit, Harvard still had every chance to head back to Cambridge with a victory, as the Crimson only trailed by a score of 5-3 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Harvard rally was halted, however, by two Penn goals within the first minute and a half of action in the final period. Both goals came on man-up opportunities, as Gottschall and captain midfielder Alex Vap were sent to the box for unnecessary roughness and slashing penalties, respectively.

Goals by freshman midfielder Evan Calvert—the only Crimson player to record multiple points on the day—and Kane created the final margin.

Earlier in the game, Harvard managed to keep the score close thanks to a strong effort by its defense as well as stellar play by McKenna. McKenna finished the day with 11 saves, including 5 in a scoreless third period.

McKenna’s counterpart in net, the Quakers’ Ryan Kelly, posted even more impressive stats, as he stopped 10 of the 15 Crimson shots on goal. He was at his best in the second quarter, as the teams tallied two goals apiece despite a 14-3 shot advantage in favor of Harvard.

Freshman attackman Greg Cohen and senior attackman Anders Johnson recorded the second period goals for the Crimson.

Wasted opportunities by Harvard were not limited to the second quarter, however. For the game, the Crimson held a 32-26 advantage in shots. Best embodying the Harvard shooting woes were Gottschall—six shots, zero goals—and Greg Cohen—eight shots, one goal.

The loss was an surely an especially tough pill to swallow for the Crimson due to the nature of Ivy League and its impressive victories over UMass and Fairfield in the two previous games.

“What we [need] to do is to just forget about [the Penn game],” Kane said. “We [need] to bounce back to the way we played in the two games before that, which were probably the two best games we’ve played [while I’ve been] in a Harvard uniform.”

“Once we learn what we had against UMass and Fairfield, we can compete with anybody and beat anybody that’s on our schedule right now.”

—Staff writer Jonathan P. Hay can be reached at hay@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.