Second-Half Surge Propels Harvard Past UMass

The Harvard men’s lacrosse team recovered from a 2-1 halftime deficit to defeat UMass (1-2), 8-5, thanks to a 6-0 tear kicked off in the second minute of the third period. Sophomore midfielder Jason Duboe’s hat trick and a strong third frame sealed it for the Crimson (2-1).

“It was the first time anyone in our locker room had beat UMass,” Harvard coach John Tillman said. “They’ve done a lot of sacrificing so it’s nice to see them get rewarded. They certainly deserve it.”

A momentum-changing goal from junior midfielder Max Motschwiller just over a minute into the third period tied the game and set the tone for the Crimson-dominated second half. Recording his fifth of the season, he leads the team in scoring.

“Max made a really big play at beginning of the third quarter and that gave us a ton of confidence,” Tillman said of the junior, who also tied his career high with four ground balls in Saturday’s game.

From there, the team would rally to net a total of six unanswered goals, stretching the Harvard lead to 7-2.

Nasty conditions combined with Harvard’s no-nonsense defense helped to keep the first period scoreless.

“It was a very, very tough day to play due to the weather.” Duboe said. “The rain just didn’t stop the whole game, so it was definitely tough trying to battle through that, and against a team that hits pretty hard.”

After 17 scoreless minutes, Duboe found the net for his first goal of the day on an assist from Motschwiller. The Minutemen didn’t get on the board until 2:15 remained in the half. A mere 20 seconds after UMass tied the game at 1-1, the home team took the lead to head into the break.

Junior goalie Joe Pike made nine total saves, seven of which came in the first half. UMass goalie Doc Schneider had eight.

“Joe Pike made an unbelievable save early on in the first quarter that set the tone for the game,” Duboe said. “Joe played out of his mind. He definitely showed who the best goalie was in Massachusetts.”

“Both goalies made some really big saves early and both team made some adjustments, both made mistakes, both capitalized on them.” Tillman added. “With play being so sloppy there were tendencies for balls to be thrown.”

An explosive second half more than made up for the low-scoring first, as sophomore Travis Burr followed up Motschwiller’s goal with one of his own just over two minutes later. The Crimson offense came alive for eight goals at even strength.

“We didn’t really make a ton of adjustments,” Tillman said. “Offensively, we wanted to be a little more aggressive. Nothing too, too different from what we were doing. We didn’t want to get away from what we prepared all week.”

In the third, Duboe completed his hat trick, pumping in two goals in five minutes. Sophomore attacker Jesse Fehr and freshman attacker Dean Gibbon’s piled on two more in the first minutes of the fourth, putting the finishing touches on the run. The Minutemen scrambled to stay in the game scoring twice to cut the lead to 7-4. With less than two minutes remaining, junior defenseman Sam Slaughter padded the lead, scoring his first goal of the season.

Integral to Harvard’s game was dominance in the faceoff category, taking nine of 15.

“We knew that replacing John Henry Flood would be a challenge, but Nick Smith has done a great job.” Duboe said. “He’s been a warrior at the X.”

—Staff writer Elizabeth A. Joyce can be reached at eajoyce@fas.harvard.edu.