Harvard Earns First League Win at Yale

Harvard men’s lacrosse cobbled together an impressive team win over nemesis Yale, 9-5, Saturday afternoon at Reese Stadium, as seven different Harvard players scored.

“It was a total team effort, that’s the way we prepared,” Crimson coach John Tillman said. “There were a lot of guys that helped us get ready that often don’t get acknowledged in the score column. Sometimes the guys that make the biggest difference in the game don’t get the goals. We need everybody to be on the same page and working hard and planning well to win.”

Despite falling behind early in its second to last game of the season, the Crimson recovered with six unanswered goals to knock down the rival Bulldogs and post its first Ivy win.

Yale jumped on the board first, scoring twice in the opening five minutes, at 13:18 and 10:14 remaining. Harvard regrouped to tie it up: freshman attacker Dean Gibbons—last week’s Ivy League Rookie of the Week—answered with 6:27 left and senior midfielder Zach Widbin knotted the score with a little over two minutes to go in the first stanza.

In that frame, the teams traded shots, Harvard taking nine and Yale taking seven, and alternated groundball pickups, 7-8. The same was true in the second period from which the teams emerged locked in a very close battle, with the score 5-4 in favor of the Bulldogs.

“In the first quarter we let up some pretty hard shots that were hard for [tri-captain Evan O’Donnell] to save,” tri-captain Nick La Fiura said. “The whole team started off pretty slow, we were not talking or being as amped up as we needed to be, but we buckled down and got more excited and more confidant, the defense especially, once we started forcing turnovers.”

Junior midfielder Nick Sapia scored for Harvard about five minutes into the second frame, and sophomore midfielder Jason Duboe notched his 24th goal of the season with a minute to play in the half. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs found two goals of their own to hold on to the one-goal advantage going into halftime.

In the half, Yale won 7-of-11 faceoffs, spending significant time in possession of the ball, but only managed 13 shots—a testament to the strong Crimson defense.

“With that many opportunities and so few shots, it speaks volumes to how well [the Harvard defense] was prepared by Coach Warne and a credit to the guys for executing the game plan and staying committed,” Tillman said.

Though the first half was no disappointment, in the second half Harvard came alive. The defense and O’Donnell surrendered no goals, and only 10 Yale shots. The offense slammed in five goals, four of them at even strength.

Junior midfielder Max Motschwiller scored twice, starting off the half’s deluge at 10:46 with the tying goal to make the score 5-5. Later he tacked on another for some insurance with a minute to play during a man-up opportunity.

Freshman attacker Francis Ellis scored less than a minute after Motschwiller at 9:50. The two goals were the only ones scored in a frame in which Yale won all three faceoffs.

Closing out the game, sophomore attacker Jesse Fehr, Motschwiller, and Duboe each notched unassisted tallies to bring the final score to 9-5.

Adding extra drama to the already charged matchup, Harvard goalie Joe Pike suffered an injury in practice seating him for Saturday’s contest. O’Donnell came in to start his first game this season and held Yale to five goals making five important saves.

“It was nice to have Evan in as a senior and a captain have a chance to show what he’s got,” La Fiura said. “Especially in goal, it’s tough to step in and take game shots with not much practice all year, but no one was worried—he’s probably the most experienced backup goalie in the league.”

Next weekend the Crimson closes out its season with Senior Day against Dartmouth at 1 p.m.

“It’s scary. I’ve been playing lacrosse as long as I can remember, since the second grade.” La Fiura said. “It’s the same way for all the seniors. It’s exciting, it’s sort of emotional. There’s a lot going into that last game. All these things pushing and pulling us will make for a great game for the people who come to watch.”

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