Men's Lacrosse Completes Fourth Quarter Comeback For Opening Day Win

When the UMass men’s lacrosse team scored its 13th goal of the afternoon on Saturday, things looked bleak for the Harvard squad in its season opener. Having extended its lead to a game-high three goals in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, the Minutemen appeared poised to come away with their fourth win over the Crimson in as many years.

But fresh off its most successful campaign in recent history, Harvard got to work. Behind four unanswered goals in the final six minutes, the No. 12/13 Crimson (1-0) earned its first victory on Opening Day since 2012, storming back to defeat UMass (0-3) at a snowy Soldiers Field, 14-13.

After cutting the deficit to 13-11 with just over five-and-a-half minutes remaining, Harvard turned to a rookie and a pair of junior attackmen to close the gap.

Sliding past two defensemen, freshman midfielder Sean Coleman delivered a pass to junior Devin Dwyer, who rocketed one past Minuteman goalie Zach Oliveri from the left post to bring Harvard within one with 3:51 to go.

Seconds later, Coleman was at it again. After gaining control of the ensuing faceoff, junior midfielder Jack Breit sprinted up the right wing, eventually finding Coleman in the slot. Rather than rip a shot on goal, the rookie continued to move the ball to the left, finding junior Deke Burns.

And on a day when the third-year attackman seemingly could not miss, Burns never hesitated. The junior ripped a shot over the left shoulder of Oliveri, giving Burns a career-high seven goals in the contest, and more importantly, pulling the Crimson even.

“All week we were working on situations like this, winning close games,” junior midfielder Sean McDonagh said. “Our team this year is really good at getting hot and staying hot. We had that one opportunity to get the momentum back and get some sparks flying, and we took advantage of it.”

McDonagh provided the game’s final spark with 2:15 left in the contest. With UMass playing a man-to-man defense, the junior decided to run circles around the perimeter. Once he found a lane to the left of the net, McDonagh burst past his defender and squeezed a shot short-side past Oliveri to give his team its first lead since the first quarter.

From there, it was up to the Crimson defense to hold its own. And playing in just the fifth contest of his collegiate career, junior goaltender Bryan Moore did just that. Coming on for senior co-captain Jake Gambitsky in the final minutes of the third quarter, Moore made three saves, including one with just 35 seconds remaining, to preserve his first career win.

“[Moore] played a great game,” Burns said. “He actually had a great week of practice, noticeably just making a lot of saves and conducting the clear really well. To see him go in there at the end of the game was pretty awesome. He stepped right in there, and that’s kind of the motto of our team: next guy up.”

For the Minutemen, Saturday marked their third-straight loss against a ranked opponent to open the year. UMass received multiple goals from four different players, including three from sophomore attackman Brendan Hegarty.

On the other end of the field, the Crimson countered the balanced UMass attack with more of a one-man show. Coming off a sophomore season where he scored 18 goals in 17 games, Burns accounted for half of Harvard’s offense on Saturday, becoming the first member of the Crimson to score at least seven goals in a game since 2012.

“Deke’s a really streaky player, so if he gets hot, he’s a nuisance for the other team,” McDonagh said. “I knew right off the bat when he had his first goal that it was going to be a big day for him.”

After the game, Burns said his performance “might have been a little bit of a fluke,” but he admitted that his final goal certainly turned the tide.

“After we scored the 13th, I think pretty much everyone on our sideline and our team knew that we weren’t just trying to tie this game up,” Burns said. “We were going for the win.”

—Staff writer Jake T. Meagher can be reached at jake.meagher@thecrimson.com.