No. 17 Harvard Outlasts Big Green, 13-7

Saturday, April 6

Cambridge, Mass.

3:30 PM

Dartmouth College

Harvard

Photo by: Justin Lafleur

4/6/2024 7:56:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

Mason Morel finished with 12 saves in goal

By: Justin Lafleur

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — No. 17 Harvard jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the game's first 30 seconds, and the Dartmouth men's lacrosse team wouldn't go away, but the Crimson outlasted the Big Green, 13-7 on Saturday afternoon. Fifth-year Mitchell Myers won 15-of-21 faceoffs with eight groundballs to move to 489 faceoff wins and 246 groundballs in his career, respectively. Defensively, sophomore Thomas Goguen tied a career-high three caused turnovers while junior Griffin O'Neil caused a pair of turnovers. The Big Green held the Crimson more than two goals below their season average of 15.22 entering the day, which was sixth in the nation.

With the loss, Dartmouth falls to 3-7 and 0-3 in the Ivy League. Harvard improves to 7-3 and 1-2 in the league.

"We're learning that our league is a very talented one and the margin for error is razor thin," said Dartmouth head coach Sean Kirwan. "You can't really give away too many opportunities against these teams. They're going to pounce and it felt like Harvard did that right off the jump. For us to battle back and stay resilient through it all was great, but obviously want to start a little bit faster and be a little bit more buttoned up there."

Senior Nate Davis led the Big Green offensively with two points behind a goal and assist. Six others scored a single goal. Junior Colin McGill had a third-quarter tally to increase his goal streak to 25 straight games dating back to his rookie season. First-year Will Cohen and junior Logan Tucker each scored their first-career goals as well.

Just 30 seconds in, Harvard held a 2-0 lead, but the Big Green wouldn't back down. Senior Henry Bonnie got Dartmouth on the board less than a minute later. The Crimson scored the next two before sophomore Emmett Paradine pulled the Big Green within 4-2 late in the first quarter.

Two consecutive Harvard tallied extended the Crimson lead to 6-2 early in the second. But senior Peter Lapina put one home after first-year Elliott Fee won a groundball battle, then fed Lapina to make it 6-3 with 3:01 left in the first half. The assist marked the first helper of Fee's career.

Safe to say Colin McGill scores goals in unique ways. Today at Harvard, he went behind-the-back with a no-look bounce shot that found the back of the net. #SCTop10 | @ESPNAssignDesk pic.twitter.com/87amSpw5aI
— Dartmouth Men's Lacrosse (@DartmouthMLax) April 6, 2024

The Crimson ended the second quarter and began the third with a goal before Cohen scored his first-career goal in transition at the 5:42 mark to get Dartmouth within 8-4, with plenty of time still remaining.

However, the Crimson reeled off three consecutive goals to open an 11-4 advantage late in the third. Dartmouth scored two straight to pull within 11-6 early in the fourth after McGill's goal, but Harvard proved too much in the end.

Safe to say Colin McGill scores goals in unique ways. Today at Harvard, he went behind-the-back with a no-look bounce shot that found the back of the net. #SCTop10 | @ESPNAssignDesk pic.twitter.com/87amSpw5aI
— Dartmouth Men's Lacrosse (@DartmouthMLax) April 6, 2024

A bright spot late was Tucker scoring his first-career goal at the 1:15 mark to account for the 13-7 final.

"I thought we put up a good fight all day," said O'Neil. "It obviously didn't finish with the result that we wanted, but had some younger guys step up in situations they hadn't necessarily been in before.

"Proud of the way that we fought all four quarters."

Final shots were 47-33 in favor of Harvard while the Crimson held a 42-38 edge in groundballs. Turnovers hurt Dartmouth, as the Big Green made 24 to Harvard's 14. More's 12 saves came across Harvard's Christian Barnard, who made 11.

The Big Green return home next Saturday to host No. 10 Yale at 3:30 p.m. on Alumni Day.

"Always great to have our alums around the program and to celebrate them," said Kirwan. "It's always nice to be home on Scully-Fahey Field and in Hanover.

"Really excited to get back to work," Kirwan continued. "We obviously have our hands full against a really talented Yale team, but for us, it's more focusing on us and improving every day."