NOTEBOOK: Men's Lacrosse Comes Up Short in Season Finale

Playing a do-or-die regular season finale against rival No. 15 Yale Bulldogs, a late rally by the Harvard men’s lacrosse team (6-8, 2-4 Ivy) came up just short. The team led 4-2 early on after three goals by junior attacker Peter Schwartz but a third-quarter flurry by the Bulldogs and senior Yale attacker Kirby Zdrill—who had four goals on the day—put Yale up 10-7, a lead that it would not relinquish.

“Our kids left it all out on the field and we just came up short,” said Crimson coach Chris Wojcik ’96. “I think both teams played your typical Harvard-Yale game. The effort was great. Both ends thought it was a really even game throughout on shots and ground balls.”

A TALE OF TWO QUARTERS

The Crimson began by controlling play, passing the ball around the perimeter and probing the Bulldog defense for holes. Harvard went up 2-0 on a pair of goals by Schwartz and scored on two of its first three possessions of the game.

“We hit our shots early, simple as that,” Wojcik said.

The Crimson entered the game last in the league with just over 32 shots a game, while Yale was third with nearly 41 a game but the roles were reversed in the first quarter when Harvard outshot Yale, 5-4. Harvard, which shoots less than 30 percent on the season, made three of the five shots it took while holding the Bulldogs to 25 percent shooting on the quarter.

“I think we came out fast, really pushing the ball in the offense, just playing fast and really pushing the ball,” captain Jason Gonos said. “The offense was really pushing the ball and playing smart-aggressive. And the defense was making some stops. So overall, it seemed like we were clicking as a team.”

The third quarter was a complete role reversal, however. Yale outscored Harvard, 5-2, to go up, 10-7, with four goals in less than three minutes that took the game from a 5-5 tie to a 9-5 Bulldog lead. During that time, Yale converted on both of its extra-man opportunities after missing on both of its chances in the first quarter.

“That’s the nature of the game,” Wojick said. “You can’t commit fouls, and with a good man-up team like that, it’s going to hurt you. They capitalized on their chances…. After the first quarter they scored on all four of their man-ups. And when you score on man-up, you’re able to get on a run there.”

WINNING THE DRAW

After coming in as the fifth-ranked team in the Ancient Eight in faceoff percentage, winning only 48.6 percent of all faceoffs, Harvard won 18 of the 24 faceoffs in the game. Yale came in as the best team in the Ivy League, winning nearly 62 percent of its faceoffs coming in, but won only 25 percent against the Crimson.

In the last quarter, when Harvard made a late push, it won all five faceoffs to maintain possession and get extra possession. As freshman Ian Ardrey and senior attackman Jack Walker scored back-to-back goals that brought Harvard within one, the Crimson garnered extra possessions by winning faceoff after faceoff.

“I thought [senior midfielder Ricky Molé] did an unbelievable job,” Wojick said. “He had a great week, was very prepared, and he stepped up. A senior on Senior Day, he stepped up and won possessions for us. I thought it was a tremendous performance on Ricky’s part, throughout the game and in particular the fourth quarter where he won all five draws.”

OFF THE BENCH

One breakout star in the game for the Crimson was Ardrey. Having only scored five goals in his career coming in, the freshman scored four goals in the game for Harvard, none more meaningful than the unassisted goal with two minutes left that brought the Crimson within two.

Ardrey began his scoring with a goal before halftime that halted a three-goal Yale run to tie the game up at five before halftime. After Yale took a 9-5 lead in the second half, Ardrey had two goals—the second of which brought Harvard to within 10-8 with six minutes left in the game.

“[He] is just a very tough-nosed player, and he was just playing so hard [Saturday],” Gonos said. “He was running through the middle of the crease, taking hits, but he was putting balls in the back of the net, and that was huge for us. He’s going to do big things here.”

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at davidfreed@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @CrimsonDPFreed.