Bryant Hands Men’s Lacrosse its First Loss of the Season, 12-9

After pulling off two comeback victories in its first four games, the No. 8/7 Harvard men’s lacrosse team found itself in a hole once again Tuesday night against Bryant. Trailing 9-8 with 5:29 left in the game, the Crimson searched for the goal that would send the contest to overtime. With a 3-0 record so far this season in matches that have gone into extra periods, the team was hopeful it could still pull out a victory.

The Bulldogs, however, made sure there would be no late letdown in front of their fans at Bryant Turf Complex. Harvard did not manage another shot on goal until there were only 21 seconds left on the clock, and by that time, the Bulldogs had already pushed their lead to 12-8. With three goals in the span of 1:05, they turned the tables on the Crimson, who had previously outscored its opponents 19-10 in the fourth quarter or later.

Sophomore midfielder Sean Coleman added a consolation goal for Harvard before time ran out, but the end result was still a comfortable 12-9 margin for Bryant. The Crimson (4-1) are now in the unfamiliar position of having to rebound from a loss, while the Bulldogs (4-2), with the win, earned a split against the two Ivy League teams on its schedule. They were blown out by No. 6/6 Yale this past Saturday, 14-4.

“Start to finish, we didn’t bring the energy we needed to deserve a win,” Harvard coach Chris Wojcik ’96 said. “We were sloppy on offense and made too many unforced errors, and credit to Bryant for taking advantage of that.”

While the Bulldogs dominated the latter stages of the game, the Crimson came out looking like the upstart team that upset No. 4/4 Duke just three days earlier. It raced out to a 4-1 lead after the first quarter, seeing contributions from the entire team as four different players scored.

In a preview of what was to come for both sides, only one of the five goals for either team in the first quarter came off of an assist. Harvard, which averaged 9.0 assists per game entering its contest against Bryant, went on to finish with an uncharacteristically low three assists for the entire game. The Bulldogs, despite scoring three more goals, only managed three assists in total themselves.

Bryant managed to pull closer in the second quarter, scoring three goals to the Crimson’s two, but the biggest momentum shift of the match came in the third quarter. Outshooting their opponents 19-5 over the 15 minutes, the Bulldogs were not only aggressive but also calculated with their plays. They held a majority of the possession in the quarter, and were it not for an impressive string of saves by Harvard sophomore goalie Robert Shaw, Bryant could have gone into the fourth period with a much larger lead.

“Shaw has been the constant on this team throughout our five games,” said Crimson defender and co-captain Stephen Jahelka. “His strong performances have kept us in games, coming up with key saves when we needed them.”

As it was, the Bulldogs were up 7-6 and had seized the lead for good. They added two more goals to cap a 5-0 run and push the score to 9-6, and Harvard never completely recovered. Bryant junior midfielder Ryan Sharpe tallied two goals during the surge, completing the hat trick after scoring in the second quarter as well. Later in the fourth, Sharpe’s teammate and sophomore attackman Cam Ziegler also scored a crucial goal to put the game away. He finished with two goals on the night.

“Coming out of the half, I think they won the first five minutes of the third quarter,” Jahelka said. “They set the tone in terms of playing more physical and picking up more ground balls, [while] we were flat.”

In the loss, Crimson senior attackman Devin Dwyer still made an impact with two goals and an assist. The three points feel short of the blistering 6.25 points per game pace he had set in the first four games of the season, however. For Bryant, junior midfielder Ryan Sharpe collected a hat trick, but no other player had more than two points.

“It was certainly a letdown for the team, but now, we have to learn from this and make the right adjustments for Saturday,” Wojcik said. “We have to be ready to move on and not let this loss hang over us.”

—Crimson staff writer can be reached at yianshenhi@college.harvard.edu.