Crimson Looks To Notch Second Win

The Harvard men’s lacrosse team made a major statement this past weekend, sending a signal to other teams that it is serious this season with a decisive 16-6 beating of the Canisius Golden Griffins.

With momentum from the victory, the team will look to continue its winning ways against the Georgetown Hoyas (0-1) tomorrow in Washington, D.C.

Though the eleventh-ranked Crimson (1-0) has just started the lacrosse season, its players are happy with the way the team is playing.

Junior Dean Gibbons scored an impressive five goals on six shots and sophomore Jeff Cohen had three goals and an assist in last week’s victory.

“I thought we played well,” junior midfielder Andrew Parchman said. “Everyone was pretty focused. We started out slow, but found our stride at the end of the match.”

“It’s good to get a win in the first game,” Harvard coach John Tillman said. “The guys will have some confidence going in against Georgetown and use that confidence to move forward.”

Yet, the Crimson will have to fight even harder to stay undefeated.

The Hoyas are currently ranked fourteenth in the country, despite losing a close battle to No. 7 Maryland, 15-13.

Harvard and Georgetown have a brief but exciting history. Last year, in the squads’ first meeting together, the Hoyas squeezed past the Crimson, 9-8 in overtime.

“We know that Georgetown is a better team than Canisius,” Cohen said. “We’re really excited and it will be a good test for us. We think it will be a great opportunity to show that Harvard is for real this year.”

Despite this confidence and optimism going into tomorrow’s matchup, the Crimson realizes it will have to prepare for the unique style of play that the Hoyas will bring to the field.

“They like to come out and pressure us,” Cohen said. “We’re going to see a lot of things we haven’t seen before. We just cannot get nervous and have to play like we play every other match. We can’t let the pressure get to us and we’re going to have to deal with the adversity if we get down early in the beginning.”

With hopes of beating Georgetown for the first time, Harvard is putting in extra time on the field and in the locker room to make sure that each player is ready for the test tomorrow.

“We’re watching tapes from last year’s game and focusing on what we can do better as a team,” Cohen said. “We really like to focus on each game individually rather than what team we’re playing.”

Even though the Crimson is excited about proving itself early in the new season, Harvard lost several of its seniors in key positions to graduation last year.

Now, the Crimson must turn to some of its newer members to fill in these gaps. As a result, Harvard had to train harder in the offseason to ensure that players would be ready for their new roles.

“We’ve just got to step our defense up,” Parchman said. “A few of the guys are stepping up into defense spots since a couple of seniors graduated last year. We just need to live up to the expectations and execute on game day.”

“The guys continue to raise the bar every day,” Tillman said. “We just keep working hard every day and continue to work at a higher and faster level.”

A win against the Hoyas would provide the momentum necessary for the Crimson to improve on last season’s 8-5 record. Even with the pressure on its shoulders, the team still remains optimistic in its chances of defeating Georgetown to continue its currently undefeated season.

“The feeling on the team is that we can beat anyone we come up against,” Parchman said. “I don’t mean to be arrogant, but we feel we’re going to work harder than Georgetown and the other teams.”

The outcome of the match is still uncertain, but one thing is clear: the Crimson’s confidence going into the match tomorrow. Pulling off the win against the Hoyas will prove it is a team to be recokoned with this season.