Crimson Avenges Last Season’s Loss by Downing Sea Wolves

The Harvard men’s lacrosse team sunk the Stony Brook Sea Wolves, 9-6, in a tight game with a memorable third-period surge led by sophomores on a damp Saturday afternoon at Jordan Field.

“We had a lot more enthusiasm today,” Harvard coach John Tillman said. “We could have taken a step back last week after losing, but I think the guys stepped up and it showed a lot about their character.”

Last time the teams met, Harvard walked away with a 13-8 loss. And after watching an early lead melt into a 4-4 tie at halftime, the Crimson’s strong third period was well-timed.

In that frame, sophomore attacker Jesse Fehr put the finishing touches on a hat-trick and classmate and midfielder Travis Burr slammed in his first two goals of the season within two minutes of each other to take the score to 7-4 at the end of the third.

The first goal of the period came during a man-up opportunity for Harvard, when Fehr scored on an assist from freshman attacker Dean Gibbons. With 6:14 left in the period, Burr intercepted a pass and fired the ball in the Stony Brook goalie’s face for a close-range goal to broaden the lead.

“I think the guys just made a few better decisions.” Tillman said. “We got a few more ground balls, we played a little smarter. All in all, it wasn’t really complicated, the guys just did a good job executing.”

Harvard racked up an early lead, 3-0, in an aggressive first period. Stony Brook squandered a man-up opportunity earned on a Harvard pushing penalty. In the second minute of the game, junior midfielder Max Motschwiller whipped the ball to sophomore midfielder Jason Duboe who found the net to get on the board first.

Just two minutes later, Duboe reciprocated and sent the ball to Motschwiller who notched his third goal of the season. With 9:11 remaining in the first, Fehr snagged the ball on the rebound of a shot by tri-captain and attacker Brooks Scholl, and bounced a shot by the goalie for a 3-0 Harvard lead.

“We had good practices all week,” Motschwiller said. “The preparation was good. We came out today and got off to a hot start and it was good to pump in a few early.”

Before the period came to a close, Stony Brook posted a pair of goals for itself narrowing the score to 3-2.

Harvard sat on a 4-2 lead for most of the second period after Fehr’s second goal of the afternoon. But, with 5:14 left in the period, Stony Brook capitalized on a Harvard penalty, and after calling a timeout, snuck a ball into the Crimson goal. With 2:35 left in the half, freshman midfielder Kevin Crowley tied the game at 4-4.

After the Crimson controlled the third period, Stony Brook did not go away quietly. Rather, the team scrambled to put two more goals together after Motschwiller—Harvard’s second-leading scorer last year— posted his fourth goal of the season and second of the game a minute in.

Two minutes after Motschwiller’s tally, Gibbons knocked in his first collegiate goal to stretch the Harvard lead to 9-4.

Stony Brook midfielder Ryan Hughes delivered a pair of goals in the final 10 minutes, but even with his efforts, the Sea Wolves came up short, 9-6.

Harvard’s young squad played an up-tempo game in which the Crimson claimed nearly twice as many ground balls as its opponent, 27-15. Junior goalie Joe Pike denied nine Stony Brook shots.

“We have a lot of sophomores and freshmen and juniors that play and sometimes you’re not sure exactly what you’re going to get,” Tillman said. “All we ask is ‘hey stay with it, if you make a mistake put your head down and keep fighting and stay together’ and that’s what we can do and if we do that, well, who knows what we can accomplish.”

—Staff writer Elizabeth A. Joyce can be reached at eajoyce@fas.harvard.edu.