April 26, 2008
Harvard got revenge for the Yale men's lacrosse team spoiling its senior day a year ago at Boston by registering a come-from-behind, 9-5, win at Reese Stadium this afternoon before a crowd of 1,375.
The Crimson (6-7, 1-4 Ivy), who got two goals each from Jason Duboe and Max Motschwiller, erased 2-0 and 5-3 deficits to earn its first Ivy League win and prevent the Bulldogs (4-9, 0-6) from getting a league win this spring.
Yale had the 5-3 advantage after Brendan Gibson's goal at 6:25 of the second period but didn't score over the last 36:25. The Crimson, who outshot (29-23) the Blue and have five fewer turnovers, blanketed Yale shooters the rest of the way and Harvard goalie Evan O'Donnell needed just five saves to earn the win.
Tyler Casertano, Jerome Arnold, Brendan Gibson, Bryce Pyle and Jonathan Koenig all managed to beat O'Donnell (no saves in the fourth) once in the first half but could not get to him later. Yale faceoff man Gregory DuBoff gave the home team plenty of chances with 10 wins on 17 draws while his squad had the overall ground ball edge, 31-27.
George Carafides, playing his last home game, stopped nine Harvard shots but got beat on nine unassisted goals.
Feeding off the momentum and spirit of the senior celebration, the Bulldogs jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes with goals from Casertano and Arnold. Casertano picked up a loose ball at the side of the net and then circled out front before flicking a low shot past O'Donnell at 13:18.
Zach Widbin walked out from behind the net and fired over Carafides' shoulder at 2:01 to put the Crimson on the board and cut the lead in half. Harvard made it two straight with a Dean Gibbson tally at 6:27.
However, the home team grabbed the momentum back at the end of the quarter with Koenig scoring high on O'Donnell with 18 seconds left on a nice spin move to make it 3-2 Blue.
The Cantabs evened the score again when Nick Sapia beat Carafides low on a run from the sideline at 10:19, but the Elis responded with two straight. Pyle notched his second goal of the year with a left-handed shot from 20 feet away and then Gibson converted a Casertano feed two minutes later and Yale was back to a two-goal lead at 5-3.
Harvard got the final tally of the second and the only two goals of the third to grab its first lead, one it would never relinquish. The go-ahead goal was initially a Carafides stop of a Francis Ellis shot that eventually got away from the Bulldog netminder and trickled over the goal line with 9:50 left in the third.
The Bulldogs end the 2008 campaign at the University of Maryland next Saturday.
Recap filed by Steven Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director