Dartmouth's Grinnell Paces Big Green Past Harvard in Men's Lacrosse Action

Saturday, May 7

Hanover, N.H.

TBA

Dartmouth College

HARVARD

Dartmouth's Grinnell Paces Big Green Past Harvard in Men's Lacrosse Action

5/6/2005 8:00:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

By: Dartmouth

May 7, 2005

Box Score | Photo Gallery

HANOVER, N.H. - The No. 13 Dartmouth Big Green solidified itself as a team to be reckoned with in a 10-7 win over visiting Harvard today in front of 2,007 at Scully-Fahey Field. The win improves Dartmouth's record to 8-4, 4-2 Ivy while the Crimson falls to 5-8, 2-4 Ivy. The win gives the 12 Big Green seniors the third win in four years over rival Harvard. Ben Grinnell (Waccabuc, N.Y.) had three goals and three assists in the victory. Dartmouth and Princeton end the season in a tie for second place in the Ivy League with Cornell (6-0) finishing first.

Dartmouth took its time getting on the board but Grinnell connected on two just a minute apart. The Big Green's first goal came at 7:40 when Grinnell ran the length of the field passing to Jamie Coffin (Greenwich, Conn.) just steps in front of the Harvard nets. Grinnell from Alec Hufnagel (Scarsdale, N.Y.) put Dartmouth ahead by two at 6:14. Grinnell and Coffin again connected to give Dartmouth its biggest lead of the game at 4:03. Harvard's Brooks Scholl put the Crimson on the board at 1:15 then Tom Boylan put Harvard down by just one goal with :43 left in the quarter.

The Big Green continued the scoring early in the second when Hufnagel wrapped a shot around Harvard goalie Evan O'Donnell at 10:08 before Grinnell and Coffin gave the Big Green a 5-3 lead at 6:32. Harvard responded with two unanswered goals. Steve Cohen scored a man up goal at 2:56 and with one second on the clock Mike McBride gave the Crimson a boost as Dartmouth saw its lead fall to just one, 5-4, at the half.

In the third Nick Bonacci (Crofton, Md.) gave Dartmouth a two-goal cushion off a pass from Coffin. As O'Donnell slid forward to make the save, Bonacci shot behind him for his first goal of the game. Harvard answered when Jake Samuelson scored at 6:47 and then pulled even at 6-6 off a goal by Sean Kane at 4:10. Bonacci gave the Big Green the lead with five seconds on the clock with a shot to the left side of the cage as Dartmouth went into the final quarter with a 7-6 advantage.

At 6:49 in the fourth Coffin took a shot that was saved by O'Donnell but bounced out of the goalie's stick right to Hufnagel who shot up and over O'Connell's head for an 8-6 Dartmouth lead. Harvard again answered at 5:13 on a man up opportunity. Grinnell had his own man up goal at 4:06 as the Crimson penalty was just winding down. Then with two seconds left in the game Brad Heritage (Cheshire, Conn.) took a pass from Grinnell to give Dartmouth the 10-7 victory.

"This was a quality win for us," said head coach Bill Wilson. "With the NCAA selection tomorrow, we didn't want to give the committee a chance to leave us out of the mix. We had quite a few quality shots but their goalie made some tremendous saves to keep them in the game. This was a nice way for our seniors to end the regular season."

Coffin finished with two goals and three assists for Dartmouth while Hufnagel had two goals and one assist. Andrew Goldstein (Milton, Mass.), in the cage for the Big Green, had 10 saves while O'Donnell finished with 14 for the Crimson. Dartmouth outshot Harvard, 32-26 and had 30 ground balls to the Crimson's 24. Harvard was paced by Zach Widbin with one goal and two assists.

The NCAA selection show will be tomorrow at 9:30 p.m. on ESPNU. Cornell won the automatic bid for the Ivy League but the Big Green is looking to receive an at-large. Dartmouth was last in the NCAA Tournament in 2003 when the Big Green won the league's automatic invite.

SCORE BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Tot

Harvard 2 2 2 1 - 7 Dartmouth College 3 2 2 3 - 10

HARVARD SCORING: GOALS - Widbin, Zach 1; Kane, Sean 1; Scholl, Brooks 1; Samuelson, Jake 1; McBride, Mike 1; Boylan, Tom 1; Cohen, Steve 1. ASSISTS - Widbin, Zach 2.

DARTMOUTH SCORING: GOALS - Grinnell, Ben 3; Coffin, Jamie 2; Bonacci, Nick 2; Hufnagel, Alec 2; Heritage, Brad 1. ASSISTS - Coffin, Jamie 3; Grinnell, Ben 3; Bonacci, Nick 1; Hufnagel, Alec 1.