Men’s Water Polo Completes Fourth Quarter Comeback, Wins Doubleheader to Remain Conference Leaders

No. 18 Harvard’s men’s water polo (17-8, 7-0 NWPC) maintained its position as the undefeated NWPC leaders, following its sixth and seventh consecutive conference wins against MIT and Brown in Saturday’s doubleheader.

The Crimson completed a fourth-quarter comeback against Brown in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter, scoring three to break a 10-10 tie in a game where Harvard had not yet led once. Its victory tied Harvard’s record for lowest goals scored in a win so far this season.

Against MIT, the Crimson tied its record of fewest goals conceded in a game this season, only allowing seven goals for the second time. On the other hand, the Engineers tied their record for fewest goals scored in a game this season.

Junior utility Jack Burghardt scored 11 of Harvard’s 23 goals this past weekend, continuing a multi-game streak of leading his team in goals. Burghardt is one of 20 players nationwide on the Cutino Watch List, consisting of players nominated by USA Water Polo, The Olympic Club, and the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches to be recognized for the Peter J. Cutino Award — the best player in men’s college water polo.

“Jack's a beast. I'm really proud of what he's doing,” Head Coach Ted Minnis said. “We asked him to play a position [center] he never played before, really, especially at this level, and he's done such a good job at playing center for us. He holds position well, he's explosive and he's drawing attention.”

“Jack is on the Cotino Watch List for a reason, and he's proving it every day when he gets in the pool,” Minnis added.

Winning 13 of its last 15, Harvard seeks to defend its first-place standing in its final three games of conference play in next weekend’s tripleheader, including a closer against No. 11 Princeton — the NWPC’s current second-place team.

No. 18 Harvard 14, Division III No. 10 MIT 7

Harvard doubled the score of its crosstown rivals on Saturday morning, embarking on a 9-1 run through two quarters to cap the Crimson’s dominant performance on both ends of the game and defeat MIT (5-16, 1-5 NWPC).

The Engineers, held scoreless throughout the third quarter, rallied with a 4-1 run late in the fourth quarter but ultimately fell 14-7.

Five of the Crimson’s players scored at least twice, with Burghardt and sophomore defender Tyler Hogan leading with four and three goals, respectively.

The Engineers dug into foul trouble, called for 12 fouls compared to Harvard’s six fouls. Sophomore attacker Derek Schaffer, who led MIT’s scoring with a hat-trick in its first round conference matchup against the Crimson, recorded three fouls, resulting in an ejection.

“I thought we played well defensively against MIT. They struggled against our pressure,” Minnis said. “We actually did a really good job of pressing in that game and keeping up our pressure and not letting them off the hook with easy fouls.”

Recovering from its first exclusion, MIT scored first, before Hogan and sophomore attacker Lukas Peabody landed two in the cage for a 2-1 lead. MIT, beginning its struggles with fouls conceded, conceded a third goal to Harvard and scored by Burghardt.

“I thought we played fine in the MIT game. We were up 10-3 at one point, so I thought we executed well. We missed a shot early, and that kind of woke us up, and we played well the rest of the way,” Minnis said.

The Engineers scored with two minutes remaining but failed to convert a penalty won from the Crimson.

Hogan, Burghardt, and junior attacker Jacob Tsotadze piled goals in three successive possessions within the first two minutes of the second quarter, forcing MIT to regroup in a timeout.

Two minutes later, Burghardt completed his hat-trick after four consecutive Harvard goals.

The teams exchanged exclusions, with Schaffer recording the first two of three fouls in the final three minutes of the quarter. The Engineers broke their scoring drought with 41 seconds remaining and closed the quarter at a 7-3 deficit in favor of the Crimson.

Harvard scored almost every minute in the third quarter, completing a 5-0 run to extend their lead to nine goals against the Engineers. Five different players scored for the Crimson, including Burghardt scoring his fourth and Hogan completing his hat-trick.

MIT, held scoreless in this quarter, saw its foul troubles culminate with Schaffer’s ejection following his third goal.

The Engineers won the scoring in the fourth quarter and outscored the Crimson 4-2, but the comeback attempt failed to change the tide.

Sophomore attacker Dean Strauser, scoring his second, exchanged goals with MIT early in the quarter.

Defense held the sides scoreless for the next two minutes, until MIT piled on three goals. Junior attacker Kunal Rajadhyax and junior utility Rick Lundh each scored two, leading the Engineers’ offense for the team’s four final goals.

Peabody finished the game for Harvard and scored in the final 30 seconds, securing Harvard’s offensively-dominant 14-7 victory.

No. 18 Harvard 13, No. 20 Brown 10

Brown (16-7, 3-4 NWPC) led the Crimson for three quarters, with Harvard not leading the scoring until its breakthrough comeback in the final three minutes.

Furtak recorded three saves in the final quarter, along with Burghardt scoring two of his seven goals in the final minutes to secure Harvard’s 13-10 victory.

Harvard never trailed by more than three goals, thanks to five Crimson players recording steals, including Hogan’s three steals and two blocks. At times, the Crimson struggled with offensive turnovers, missed shots, and saves from Brown’s sophomore goalie Dimitrios Kratimenos and sophomore utility Dominik Balla.

“I thought we did not play well in the first half against Brown. We were down 6-3 at one point and weren't really tight on offense and we weren't getting any flow in our offense,” Minnis said. “We took some bad shots out of rhythm. We missed some easy looks defensively.”

“So I thought we had to make some adjustments. Going into halftime, I was pretty happy that we were only down two going into half, and then I thought we played much better in the second second half,” Minnis added. “It was the tale of two halves, for sure.”

Balla broke through early for Brown’s first goal of the game. Balla and Hogan exchanged steals before senior attacker Mason Hunt found time and space to equalize.

The Crimson stepped up its defensive pressure to limit the Bears outside the perimeter, but, instead, Brown capitalized on the resulting power plays to score two goals.

Harvard maintained possession during its offensive drives, but senior attacker Daniel Hadar recorded a block and steal to firmly hold Brown’s defense amidst several Harvard turnovers.

Hunt scored through the corner for his second, and the Crimson eventually converted a power play, with Strauser assisting Burghardt to close the quarter 3-4.

Brown twice shut down attempted connections to Burghardt in the middle before Balla helped rally another two goals for Brown. Harvard’s defense gained strength, with Peabody, Hogan, and freshman attacker Felix Pal all recording consecutive steals to halt Brown’s scoring.

Kratimenos saved two shots for Brown, while Peabody broke Harvard’s streak of turnovers and missed shots with a goal.

Brown scored its seventh, but Burghardt broke through three defenders in the middle to close the deficit to two at the end of the second quarter.

Hogan recorded his third steal of the game, leading to Peabody assisting Bughardt’s hat-trick. The Bears quickly responded, skirting in a goal following Harvard’s short pass turnover.

Burghardt scored his fourth and joined Harvard’s defensive train, recording a steal. The Crimson struggled with finishing shots, but not maintaining possession, exemplified by four back-to-back possessions.

Burghardt’s fifth goal came from a fastbreak to an one-on-one opportunity, tying the game at 8-8 for the first time since the first quarter.

Brown responded 30 seconds later and found an open player in the Crimson’s defense, but Strauser scored with five seconds remaining to maintain a tie heading into the final quarter.

An early overhead goal reclaimed the Bears’ lead, followed by another Kratimenos save. Hogan recorded his second block, leading to a fastbreak where junior attacker Jacob Tsotadze helped Hogan find the cage for the 10-10 tie.

The teams remained scoreless and swapped possessions back-and-forth for the next four minutes, exchanging turnovers and fouls. Senior goalie Tanner Furtak recorded two crucial point-blank saves to hold the tie with three minutes remaining.

Tsotadze broke the deadlock, firing a shot from the central perimeter for Harvard’s first lead of the game at 11-10. A minute later, Furtak saved his third of the quarter, and junior attacker Vilas Sogaard-Srikrishnan found Burghardt for his sixth.

“I thought we played much better defensively, and then that got us going offensively. We got a couple steals on the perimeter that led to some easy goals in transition,” Minnis said.

Then came the dagger. Burghardt disarmed the Bears’ root defender and advanced to complete the one-on-one, securing Harvard’s 13-10 win.

Harvard completes its second and final round of NWPC matchups next weekend against Long Island University and Iona University on Saturday, before facing No. 11 Princeton, the highest nationally-ranked NWPC team, in the closing conference matchup on Sunday.

“I think we're playing the best we’ve played all year, and I think that starts on the defensive end, and we're connecting a little bit more defensively,” Minnis said. “We're minimizing some mistakes on the defensive side of the ball, feeding into everything, and our attitude and mentality of how we're approaching each game has been really good.”

Harvard’s final place in the NWPC standings will determine its seed heading into the NWPC Championships two weekends later.

“We got to play one game at a time. We got to attack it, and we're in control of our destiny on where we're going to finish with the regular season. Our goal is to win the regular season conference championship, and that's going to take three wins,” Minnis added. “I tell the team all the time pressure makes diamonds, and we're trying to make diamonds here.”