Men's Lacrosse Defeats Bryant University, 7-5

The Harvard men’s lacrosse team was aided on Wednesday by great games from its seniors and a key freshman as it challenged the team from Bryant University.

With a 7-5 win, Harvard improved its record to 3-3 and dropped the Bulldogs to 0-7.

The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday night, but was postponed to 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday due to freezing rain. The weather cleared up just before the new start time, and the two teams met for the first time in their programs’ histories on Harvard’s Soldiers Field.

Bryant jumped out to an early lead, as their leading scorer, junior midfielder Colin Dunster, put them on top with a goal 38 seconds into the game. Dunster would eventually finish with three goals and an assist.

However, the Crimson’s leading scorer for the season, senior midfielder Alex White, quickly responded with a goal of his own, tying the game at 1-1. The score remained tied until the end of the quarter, when Harvard’s star freshman attack, Devin Dwyer, scored again after an assist from White.

The second quarter belonged entirely to the Crimson, as the team scored three straight goals, all unassisted, in the final half of the quarter including two more from Dwyer and White.

“At halftime it was 5-1,” said senior captain Jason Gonos. “We would have liked to have had a better second half and put them away earlier, but they stuck in the game. They’re a solid team… we knew it would be a tough match.”

In the second half, Bryant tried to claw their way back into contest. The opposing team put the game within one goal 40 seconds into the fourth quarter. Fortunately for the Crimson, however, Dwyer put the game out of reach with his third goal of the game.

“Our first half went better than our second half,” Dwyer said, “But our team showed a lot of poise in the second half, and when Bryant made their run we just stayed confident.”

Last year, insidelacross.com ranked Dwyer as the 4th ranked player coming out of high school. The freshman has lived up to expectations so far. He is the team’s second leading scorer, and showed up in this game with the first hat trick of his career as well as an assist.

“I think my teammates did a great job and happened to make me look good,” Dwyer said. “It really all goes to them.”

The young attackman’s 10 goals and 10 assists combine for a team-leading 20 points.

“He’s really shown that he is a major threat on the field,” Gonos said about his younger teammate. “He’s been a great feeder for us, so it was awesome to see him get his own goals and get the hat-trick. As a senior, it’s always nice to see a freshman stepping up.”

The Crimson struggled in the game on loose balls, trailing the Bulldogs 17-25 on ground balls and 5-11 on faceoffs.

“They have a good faceoff guy,” Gonos said. “But our faceoff guys are good too and they put up a good fight against them. I think we got some pretty big ground balls in our area … to keep them off the scoreboard.”

Harvard was also less efficient in its clearing game than their opponent, only successfully clearing the ball out of the defensive end on 14 of its 23 opportunities while Bryant went 12-16.

The Crimson also had more penalties than Bryant, giving up four man-up possessions to its opponent’s one. The team did not, however, allow a man-down goal during any of those four penalties.

“We put in a lot of preparation for the game,” said Gonos. “[We] scouted their man-up a lot and were ready.”

Harvard’s success this year is thanks largely to excellent performances from senior goalkeeper Harry Krieger, who leads the Ivy League in saves and ranks second in save percentage with 69 and 57% respectively. In this game, the goalie made 15 saves and notched a percentage of 75%.

“Harry really put on a show today and really kept us in the game,” Dwyer said about his senior teammate. “A lot of his plays have been big for the team, and I guess we owe it all to him.”

In addition, Harvard got excellent play out of Gonos. The defenseman led the Crimson with seven ground balls and helped limit the Bulldogs to only five goals, tied for their fewest total on the season.

Harvard will need more strong play from its seniors and freshmen as it continues with Ivy League play at Dartmouth on Saturday.