MALE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Cohen Leads Scoring Charge

If he can replicate the success of his freshman year, Jeff Cohen’s name could become a verb. This season alone, opposing goalies were owned, pwnd, and Cohened 34 times.

It is no coincidence that Cohen’s arrival coincided with the best season in the last 10 years for Harvard men’s lacrosse. The freshman’s 34 scores were the most ever for a Crimson rookie, and the ninth-highest single-season total in Harvard history. His 2.62 goals per game placed him third in the conference and eighth in the nation in scoring.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” co-captain Nick Smith said. “He’s not the best athlete out there by any standard…He’s slower and not as strong as most of the guys he’s playing with, but because he’s so lacrosse savvy, he’s scoring five or six goals against the best teams in the country.”

With Cohen’s gaudy statistics came numerous accolades. He was honored three times as the Ivy League Rookie of the Week, twice as the NEILA Rookie of the Week, and once as the NEILA Player of the Week. At the end of the season, he was named the NEILA Rookie of the Year and an All-Ivy honorable mention.

Cohen’s arrival in Cambridge had been in the making for a number of years. His older brothers Steve ’06 and Greg ’07 played lacrosse for the Crimson, and watching them play in the stony confines of Harvard Stadium made quite an impression on the younger sibling.

“I always knew this was the place for me,” Cohen said. “I remember coming to games when I was a teenager, sitting in the stands and…feeling like I was almost part of the team.”

Before he put on a Harvard uniform, Cohen rewrote the Long Island high school record books. In the lacrosse hotbed, he scored a record 260 goals and was a two-time All-American. With these accomplishments preceding him, Cohen entered his first season with lofty expectations.

“I definitely put pretty high expectations on myself,” the freshman said. “The coaches put high expectations on me too. I always considered myself a goal-scorer—it’s what I did a lot of when I played in high school. So I knew when the coaches gave me my opportunity to get in there, I was going to score goals.”

Any concerns about Cohen’s ability to succeed at the college level were assuaged in the Crimson’s first game of the season.

Harvard opened the spring in Durham, N.C. against traditional powerhouse Duke. With sophomore attacker Dean Gibbons sidelined by illness, Cohen got the starting nod against the No. 5 Blue Devils, and immediately made his presence felt.

“Maybe if [Gibbons] hadn’t gotten sick I wouldn’t have had as many opportunities in that game, and I wouldn’t have gotten the confidence,” Cohen said.

The freshman notched two goals in the second period to give the Crimson a 2-1 lead, and tallied a third score in the second half as Harvard defeated Duke, 9-6. The win was the Crimson’s first victory over a top-10 team under current coach John Tillman.

“I remember after the game, that night being in [the] Durham airport,” Cohen recalled. “We got delayed for two hours, and we were all sitting there, getting phone calls from everyone we knew just saying, ‘Did you really beat Duke? Is that a joke?’”

Cohen’s excellence persisted throughout the season, and he improved as the year wore on. He scored five goals in a blowout against Hartford, four goals in a heartbreaking loss to then-No. 3 Cornell, and six goals in a win over Holy Cross. In total, Cohen recorded six hat tricks, including three in a row to close out the season.

“He’s a great finisher, one of the best I’ve ever seen,” co-captain Max Motschwiller said.

Cohen’s prolific scoring helped Harvard to its best season in a decade. The Crimson went 8-5 overall and 3-3 in the Ivy League, narrowly missing an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament.

“Jeff was awesome,” Motschwiller said. “Coming in his freshman year and having the season he had, he was so important to our team.”

With his freshman season under his belt, Cohen is determined avoid a sophomore slump next year as Harvard’s rising lacrosse program continues to develop.

“[The coaches] told me I’m going to have to step up and be a leader,” Cohen said. “I’m not going to be able to surprise teams anymore. I need to be able to adapt and make myself better.”

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