Penn Drops Men's Lacrosse in Double Overtime

For the third consecutive Ivy League game, the Harvard men’s lacrosse team (7-5, 1-3 Ivy) was competitive till the end. And for the third consecutive Ivy League game, it walked off the field heartbroken.

Three weeks ago, it was a 9-8 loss to Dartmouth after the Big Green beat the Crimson at the buzzer. Last week, it was a blown lead in the final moments of a 13-12 defeat to No. 5 Cornell.

But Saturday’s contest against Penn (6-4, 3-2) might have very well been the worst of those one-goal losses.

After staging a ferocious rally to tie the game with two goals in the final two minutes, the Crimson fell in double overtime to the No. 15 Quakers, 7-6.

With 30 seconds left in the second sudden-death period, Penn midfielder Drew Belinsky came around the net from the right, spun, and beat Harvard sophomore goalie Harry Krieger for the winner, leaving the Crimson players holding their heads in despair as the Quakers mobbed the freshman in front of their goal.

“I’m proud of our kids, but we put ourselves in a hole,” Harvard coach Chris Wojcik ’96 said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the lead, couldn’t get the momentum...we didn’t make the plays we had to.”

The low-scoring match was dominated by strong defense on both sides that began early in the contest.

The Quakers’ only goal in the opening period came with 1:07 remaining, when midfielder Al Kohart reset up top, sprinted left in a curl, and fired on the run to beat Krieger. The Harvard defense was strong throughout the quarter, but Penn’s backs were better, shutting out the Crimson attack.

“We just didn’t get in a rhythm,” junior co-captain Kevin Vaughan said. “We didn’t get good shots off on the first few possessions, and they’ve got a good defense. You’ve got to hand it to them.”

The Quakers took a 2-0 lead early in the second after Crimson sophomore Peter Berg was called for pushing. Penn attack Corey Winkoff took advantage of the man-up opportunity, getting Krieger to fall for a high fake before putting it past him low for the score.

Harvard finally got on the board with 3:32 left in the quarter, when sophomore Alex White fired a shot past Quaker goalie Brian Feeney to cut the Penn lead in half.

Neither team was able to score for the remainder of the period, as the Quakers had a man-up possession in the final minute but was unable to get a shot off.

“I’m really proud of our defensive effort,” Wojcik said. “We really locked them down.”

The scoring began to pick up in the third.

At 13:09, co-captain Dean Gibbons fired a cross-field pass to Vaughan on the right side, and Vaughan went low with a side-arm shot to beat Feeney and tie the game at 2-2.

Four minutes later, the Quakers responded when Will Koshanksy saw a wide-open lane down the middle and was able to score. Penn added another tally with 5:57 left, when Belinsky took a pass from Rob Fitzpatrick in front, and, in one motion, fired the ball past Krieger to put Penn up 4-2.

But Harvard rallied to tie the contest. At 2:31, junior Terry White took a pass on the right side, made a move around his defender, and beat Feeney for the goal. Under a minute later, freshman Peter Schwartz wrapped around the net and sent a shot under the crossbar to even the game at 4-4 heading into the final period.

“No matter what, we always fight back,” Wojcik said. “That’s a characteristic of this team during the course of the season.”

The Quakers jumped back ahead 12:16 into the fourth on a Morgan Griff goal. Neither team scored for nearly 10 minutes after that, until Griff came from behind the pipes and added his second of the contest to put Penn up, 6-4, with 2:46 remaining.

But the Crimson would not give in. With 1:51 to go, Vaughan came around the net curling left, and while being tackled, went low to beat Feeney.

After a fight for a ground ball on the ensuing faceoff gave Harvard possession, the Crimson called timeout to set up a play. The strategy session paid off, as with 52 seconds left in the game, sophomore Ryan Stevens hit Gibbons, who fired a lefty shot past Feeney that he followed with a big fist pump of jubilation.

The Crimson won the subsequent faceoff again, but Stevens missed wide left, giving Penn the final possession of regulation. But Krieger made a catch save with four seconds remaining to send the game into overtime.

“Harry played outstanding,” Wojcik said. “I’m very proud of him, he really made a number of big saves.”

In the first extra session, both goalies made tough saves, and Terry White missed wide and then turned it over on Harvard’s final two possessions, sending the game into double overtime.

Krieger made a save on a Kohart shot early in the second extra session. But Feeney responded with a save on a Gibbons attempt, returning possession to the Quakers, who won on Belinsky’s goal.

“You can’t hold them to two in the first half, seven overall and not win those games,” Vaughan said. “It’s very frustrating ... yeah, we’ve come back and made it close the last few games, but we lost, so it doesn’t mean much.”

The third consecutive Ivy loss could potentially be catastrophic to Harvard’s chances of making the four-team Ivy League tournament, and it sets up must-win games against Princeton and Yale the next two weeks. But it could take a while for the Crimson to recover from another agonizing defeat.

“This [loss] is a little different,” Vaughan said. “Our defense really buckled down and had an unbelievable day, Harry Krieger was an absolute stud in goal, and it’s just another one of those games where we didn’t get anything going, we didn’t put everything together.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.