Unbeaten UMass Takes Down Harvard

On a chilly Tuesday night at Garber Field in Amherst, the Harvard men’s lacrosse team quickly learned the true meaning of intrastate rival UMass’ nickname, as the Minutemen continued to pour in goals in what seemed like every moment of the contest.

Once the offensive onslaught was over, No. 2/3 Massachusetts (8-0) had showed why it is not only the top team in the state but also one of the best in the country, remaining undefeated by thrashing the Crimson (4-4), 16-8.

“UMass outplayed us, I think they outcoached us, and they were the better team,” Crimson coach Chris Wojcik ’96 said. “They jumped on us early, we started slow, and they continued their strong play throughout the night.”

In a battle of two of the country’s leading scorers, Minutemen junior attackman Will Manny got the best of Harvard senior attack Jeff Cohen. Manny, who entered the game tied for sixth nationally in goals per game, scored five times, while UMass shutout Cohen—who came in tied for first and was riding a streak of six straight games with a hat trick—until the contest’s final moments, limiting him to one score on six shots.

“We probably didn’t get [Cohen] as many shots as we should have, we didn’t generate enough looks for him,” Wojcik said. “They played very good defense on him, for sure.”

After an unassisted goal by junior midfielder Alex White cut the Minutemen lead to 6-4 with 3:57 remaining in the second quarter, UMass responded with five unanswered scores—two before the half and three after—to pull away. Manny and Art Kell each had a pair of tallies during that stretch, while Steve D’Amario also scored before Alex White finally answered for the Crimson, scoring a man-up goal off a pass from tri-captain Kevin Vaughan with 4:31 to go in the third.

“A lot of it just came down to [the fact that] they had the ball a lot more than us,” tri-captain Terry White said. “Whenever we got on offense, we were way too tentative, and once we got behind they did a good job of slowing the game down, and that makes everything a lot harder.”

After UMass’ Kyle Smith scored off teammate Mike Fetterly’s third assist of the night, making the score 12-5, Alex White completed a hat trick by beating Massachusetts goalie Tim McCormack with 1:12 to go in the period.

But the Minutemen attack came roaring back with four straight goals to open the final quarter, with Manny, Kell, Connor Mooney, and Anthony Biscardi all scoring against Crimson freshman goalie Jake Gambitsky to put UMass up double-digits, 16-6.

“Manny is an exceptional player, but other than that there’s just a lot of guys who work well together,” White said. “They were just relentless.... We didn’t stick with them.”

Following slashing and pushing penalties on UMass’ Tom Celentani and Vincent Travaglini, respectively, Harvard added two late man-up goals. Freshman Will Walker beat McCormack off a pass from Vaughan with 2:16 to go for his second goal of the night, and Walker then assisted Cohen, who finally got on the board with 1:38 remaining. But by then, the game was far out of reach.

“They just kind of jumped on us early, and never really let up,” White said. “I think as a team it was certainly an eye-opening game for us.”

The Minutemen got out to a quick 2-0 lead on goals by Kell and Manny in the contest’s first five minutes. Sophomore attackman Daniel Eipp cut the deficit in half 8:30 into the opening quarter, but that goal was all the Crimson’s second-leading scorer would be able to muster the rest of the night.

“Danny’s a guy who thrives off his change of direction and his speed,” White said. “They played him very loosely behind the cage, so it didn’t really give him the chance to get a step on his guy.”

Biscardi and Manny responded with scores midway through the period for UMass before Vaughan found junior attackman Jack Walker for a goal with just one second remaining in the first.

Will Walker got Harvard within one at 4-3 at the 13:19 mark of the second, but Biscardi responded with his second goal a minute later, and Bobby Tyler added a score two minutes after that.

“UMass is excellent offensively,” Wojcik said. “We had some breakdowns defensively, but they’re that talented. They have good players and they move the ball extremely well.”

Still undefeated in league play, the Crimson will need to turn things around quickly as it moves into the heart of its conference season.

“Tonight was tough,” White said. “We just weren’t anywhere near our true potential. Hopefully we can take the loss the right way and keep learning from the things we did wrong.... But it was a big opportunity for us, and it just kind of stunk to get run over like that.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.