On Senior Day, Harvard Trounces Bulldogs

On Saturday, amid all the pageantry of Harvard-Yale, Senior Day, and Spring Weekend, the men’s lacrosse team looked to accomplish something it had not achieved since 2004: a winning season. In its final game at Harvard Stadium this year, the Crimson (7-5, 2-3 Ivy) led the Bulldogs (5-7, 1-5 Ivy) throughout the contest and pulled away late, winning, 13-8, and ensuring a record over .500.

“It was just a great win,” captain Max Mottschwiller said. “We needed to get this one for a lot of reasons, for the season and for the seniors.”

The offense was led by freshman attacker Jeff Cohen. After a career-best six goals last week against Holy Cross, Cohen tallied five scores, including the eventual game-winner. Senior goaltender Joe Pike anchored the defense with five saves on the afternoon.

“It’s a rivalry game, Harvard-Yale, a great atmosphere, a ton of people here, it’s just great to come out with a win,” Cohen said.

The scoring began 35 seconds into the game when senior midfielder Sean Whitsitt sent a pass to senior defenseman Eric Posner in the middle of the field. The long stickman bounced a shot past Yale goaltender Johnathan Falcone, Posner’s second goal of the season, to give Harvard an early lead.

“Eric Posner was everywhere today,” Harvard coach John Tillman said. “He played with so much heart and toughness.”

The Crimson offense stalled for the rest of the opening period. The Bulldogs tied the score four minutes after Posner’s goal and took a 2-1 lead with 3:55 left in the quarter.

Harvard responded early in the second period when freshman attacker Kevin Vaughn scored an unassisted goal. Two minutes later, junior midfielder Jason Duboe set Cohen up with a beautiful pass in front of the net where the freshman converted for his first goal of the afternoon.

Cohen struck again midway through the period. Posner fed the freshman beside the net and Cohen faked a shot low and finished high to give the Crimson a 4-2 lead.

Yale fought back, tallying two goals in the latter half of the period. One score came after a blocked shot trickled away from Pike and was recovered and scored by Bulldog attacker Brendan Gibson. Another Cohen goal accounted for Harvard’s fifth of the half, but Yale was able to bring the score back to within one in the closing seconds of the period. Cradling the ball behind the goal with time dwindling, Yale attacker Matt Gibson ran in front of the net and converted on a diving shot.

Leading 5-4 at halftime, the Crimson held a wide edge in faceoffs, 9-2, a slight advantage in shots, 20-19, and was tied with the Bulldogs in groundballs, 11-11.

Harvard came out strong in the second half, scoring three goals in the first four minutes. One minute into the third period, Motschwiller drove past his defender on the left wing and scored on a diving shot for his ninth of the season.

“It’s good to put one in, but the win is the most important thing because we can enjoy that as a team,” Motschwiller said.

Less than two minutes after Motschwiller’s goal, junior attacker Jesse Fehr scored off of a rebound and, one minute later, Duboe ripped a shot past Falcone to give Harvard a four-goal cushion. Yale cut the lead to two twice, but the Crimson attack was too great to overcome. Fehr and Duboe each added another goal, captain Nick Smith scored one, and Cohen tallied two more, notching his 31st goal of the season.

“[Cohen] is a very good finisher,” Tillman said. “When he makes a mistake or a goalie makes a save, he does a great job of analyzing and going, ‘You know what, I need to try to do this,’ or ‘This is what I can do to improve.’”

The win was Harvard’s seventh on the season and ensures the senior class of the first winning season during its tenure.

“Our seniors are great role models to all of us,” Cohen said. “They’ve really started something for this program. It’s the first winning season Harvard’s had in a while, and it’s big for them. They started this, and we wanted to come out here and make them proud.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. Walsh can be reached at twalsh@fas.harvard.edu.