Men's Water Polo Downs Brown In Home Stand

Considering that it faced a rival in its last regular-season home game and in its Ivy opener, it’s not surprising that the Harvard men’s water polo was excited about coming out on top over Brown last night.

But the fans seemed even more enthused about the win, and proceeded to celebrate the Crimson’s 6-2 win over the Bears (6-6) by jumping into the pool—fully clothed. The victory propelled Harvard (7-7) into second in the Northern Division.

“I can’t think of a better way to have ended the season at home than by beating Brown,” co-captain Rick Offsay said.

The win was also important for Harvard coach Erik Farrar, who had spent most of his coaching career with the Bears before being hired by the Crimson this summer.

“Erik built a strong program there,” sophomore John Voith said. “And tonight he was able to show even though he’s at Harvard now, he’s still capable of winning.”

Even if it meant that some of the Crimson players suffered a bit in the process.

“He was getting beat up, but Rick did not succumb to their thuggery,” junior goalie Robbie Burmeister said.

Harvard, holding a delicate 1-0 lead going into the second half, was able to blow the game open in the third quarter.

With 3:46 left to go in the period, Offsay found the back of the net, giving the Crimson a 2-0 lead. Immediately after the goal, Farrar took out three of Harvard’s strongest players—Offsay, Voith and sophomore Mike Garcia.

The Crimson wasn’t able to keep Brown scoreless for long without the trio in the pool, and the Bears’ Thomas Payton quickly responded by netting Brown’s first goal about thirty seconds later.

With the Crimson leading 2-1 midway through the third, Farrar called a vital time out. After Harvard regrouped, Voith, Offsay and Garcia reentered the pool to change the atmosphere of the tense, defensively dominated game.

“We all just looked around at each other and realized it was time to go out there and win,” Offsay said.

Eight seconds after the time out, senior Greg Marvin-Smith tallied a goal for the Crimson, sparking the Harvard offense.

Offsay, Voith and co-captain Mike Gerrity all took solid shots for the Crimson on three drives to the goal after Marvin-Smith scored, but were denied by the Bears’ goalie Jay Fantone.

But moments before the buzzer rang, Garcia took a shot from way out to the right side of the goal and muscled the ball into the left corner to give the Crimson a 4-1 lead.

“We had a slow start, but once we starting scoring Brown had no chance because of our strong defense,” Voith said.

The Crimson offense continued the tenacious play in the fourth quarter. When Garcia took a shot that bounced off the right post, Voith was there to quickly grab the ball and net a goal.

Garcia scored three of the six Harvard goals, including the all-important first goal for the Crimson in the second quarter.

“Garcia’s whole game has really stepped up lately,” Burmeister said. “Tonight, though, his goals were just what we needed to play hard and take it to Brown.”

Harvard’s offense had been unable to penetrate the Bears’ defense at the beginning of the game, and didn’t score on its first power play. When the opportunity presented itself to the Crimson again in the second period, it took advantage and scored.

“That was the difference between us and Brown,” Offsay said. “We were doing the little things that make you play good water polo. They were playing like it was the WWE.”

For the first two periods, the defense was the story. The Crimson, anchored by Burmeister, held the Bears scoreless for the first 17.5 minutes of the game.

“Holding a solid team like Brown to two goals is rare,” Offsay said.

“We were very active on defense and never really gave them a good scoring opportunity,” Burmeister said.

The Harvard defense also successfully prevented Brown from driving close to the goal and getting off many shots by forcing the Bears to run the shot clock down and make hasty throws.

Burmeister only gave up one other goal to Brown in the final period of play when the Bears were on a power play after a penalty was called on Offsay. By this time, however, Harvard held a 5-2 lead.

“I’m really proud of the way we played tonight,” Burmeister said. “And I’m really happy for Erik to get a big win against a team he used to coach.”

Harvard’s next matches come against Iona and Fordham on Saturday when it travels to New London, Conn. The games are the last two regular season contests for the Crimson.

—Staff writer Megha Parekh can be reached at parekh@fas.harvard.edu.