Despite Outshooting Stags, Crimson Falls in Jordan Opener

As the old adage goes, “almost doesn’t count.”

The Harvard men’s lacrosse team learned that all too well in this weekend’s home opener against Fairfield.

Despite a 41-25 advantage in shots taken, the Crimson was unable to take advantage of a number of scoring opportunities in a 7-5 loss to the Stags in the season’s first game at Jordan Field on Saturday.

It was the first time this year that Harvard (2-2) has won the shot battle and failed to earn a victory. The five goals scored for the Crimson represented a season low in the early goings of the year, while Fairfield (3-2) tied its lowest scoring output of the season but still managed the win.

Although the end result wasn’t to Harvard’s liking, it wasn’t for lack of trying. Four shots hit the post and a number of open looks went wide for a Harvard team that, for the first time all season, struggled in the early going—posting only two first-half goals on 18 shots.

“Most of those shots were right on the doorstep, and that’s not very good shooting,” Harvard coach Scott Anderson said. “It’s mostly just concentration and effort, and it’s something that some of these guys are going to have to put more time into or it’s going to continue to be a problem.”

It was the first game of the year in which the Crimson never led, but the game was still close throughout.

After two Stag goals within the first three and a half minutes gave Fairfield a 2-0 lead, co-captain Jake Samuelson and junior attackman Greg Cohen scored unassisted goals for Harvard just a minute and 45 seconds apart. The 2-2 deadlock held for the rest of the half until the Stags’ Greg Downing scored with just 29 seconds to play in the quarter. It was his second of four goals on the afternoon, and came after a scrum around the net where the Crimson failed on an easy opportunity to clear the ball.

While all the bounces seemed to be going Fairfield’s way, the opposite rang true for Harvard.

“We had a lot of great shots, but we made a good goalie look great,” senior attackman Steve Cohen said. “That’s frustrating for us.”

Those sentiments were echoed by the coach.

“I thought he looked great today, but I think we helped him a lot with that,” said Anderson, referring to Stags goalie Michael Kruger. “I don’t think there are very many people you can beat with five goals.”

The Crimson’s start to the third quarter was promising as the team had five shot opportunities in the first two minutes alone. After that initial flurry still left Harvard scoreless, the elder Cohen scored the first of his two goals of the afternoon at 11:25 on a man-advantage, evening the score at three. It was the team’s conversion of both opportunities—both of Cohen’s goals came on man-up opportunities, and both were assisted by Harvard points leader Evan Calvert—that proved the brightest spots of the afternoon.

“I try to bring a little bit of energy off the bench,” Steve said. “It’s like being the sixth man in basketball or something along those lines, but it wasn’t enough today.”

Three more Fairfield goals had the score at 6-3 just under midway through the fourth quarter, before Cohen and sophomore attackman Brooks Scholl made it a one-goal margin with 6:44 to play. But Downing put the exclamation point on the Stags’ first ever win at Jordan Field, scoring the game’s final goal with 1:07 to go.

Next up for the Crimson is Penn this Saturday, and Anderson cites a few improvements that need to be made before the beginning of Ivy League play.

“It’s decision-making and shooting, it’s finishing close, it’s making good decisions, and being willing to work on offense,” he said. “I don’t think we did any of those things, and this is the end result.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.