Cohen's Late Heroics Move Harvard Up the Polls

After scoring one goal in a victory against Penn on March 25, junior Greg Cohen looked to lead the Harvard men’s lacrosse team to its first two-game win streak of the season against Denver on Saturday.

And he was able to do just that.

After battling for the full hour of regulation and two four-minute overtime periods, Cohen sent the Pioneers home an 8-7 loser on a goal with 1:15 left in the third overtime. He came around the left side of the net, diving past two defenders into the crease for the score to end the longest game in Crimson history.

“They were shutting me off with the short stick,” Cohen said. “I had the short stick in my face the whole game, so once I picked up the ball it was pretty easy to run by a short stick as opposed to a long stick.

“It’s what I’m used to going at,“ Cohen added. “So I saw the opening and took it.”

In addition to giving Harvard its second victory in a row over a ranked opponent, Cohen helped avenge last year’s disappointing loss to Denver. Just over twelve months ago, the Crimson appeared to have the Pioneers beat when with 24 seconds left in the game Denver scored two goals to defeat Harvard.

“I think we had last year in our minds,” Cohen said. “We lost a real close one to them in Denver and we definitely wanted to pay them back a little bit for that.”

Cohen’s overtime goal was his second of the game, his first coming unassisted with 10:24 left in the fourth quarter to bring the Crimson within one at 6-5. He then seemed to end the game in dramatic fashion when his shot went in at the final buzzer, but the goal was ruled to have come after time expired, sending the game to overtime.

Instead of getting discouraged by the setback, Cohen excelled in overtime. In such a lengthy contest, exhaustion became a factor for many, especially going into the later periods.

“You have to be disciplined enough to really go hard that one time,” Harvard coach Scott Anderson said. “When people are fatigued that’s the hardest thing, they just want to do something, and you don’t want to just do something, you want to do something good that’s going to finish it. [Cohen] was a great example. That was a great athletic move.”

Cohen’s goal the previous week in the team’s first Ivy League matchup against then-No.14 Penn came unassisted with 5:49 left in the second quarter to bring the Crimson to trim a deficit to one.

But these exploits are simply the norm for Cohen. Before missing all of 2005 due to a preseason injury, he led the team in scoring with 11 goals and 15 assists for 26 points in his rookie season.

“Offensively, Greg Cohen is back this year, that’s probably the biggest difference,” said Anderson before the season even started.

So far he has posted 12 goals and two assists for 14 points on the season, second on the team to junior Evan Calvert.

“I don’t ever remember games when he didn’t score,” said Anderson after a win against Holy Cross earlier in the season. “It’s just more making sure he’s taking high-percentage shots, he’s a great physical athlete.”

Cohen looks to continue the offensive charge this weekend at home versus Cornell. A win would help propel Harvard to an even higher rank nationally.