Season Comes to an Unsatisfactory Finish

The effort was there, but every member of the team will say the seniors deserved better.

Battling dismal weather, a soggy field, and an energetic Dartmouth squad, the Harvard men’s lacrosse team dropped a disappointing season finale at Harvard Stadium on Senior Day last Saturday.

In a game that featured momentum swings for both sides, the Big Green (7-7, 3-3 Ivy League) coupled a blistering start with a punishing second half to earn a 12-6 victory and dash any hope of a .500 season for the Crimson (6-8, 1-5).

“It’s disappointing,” sophomore midfielder Jason Duboe said. “We definitely didn’t play as well as we should have or as well as we wanted to. We didn’t send the seniors off the way we would have liked.”

Dartmouth junior Brian Koch notched four goals and sophomore Ari Sussman tallied four assists as the visitors spoiled an emotional day for the Harvard seniors.

“It’s tough,” tri-captain Brooks Scholl reflected. “I’ve been playing lacrosse my whole life, and this is the last time I’ll ever play...It’s sad, but it was a great experience.”

Still, for over 1000 fans and the younger players, the pregame ceremony presented an opportunity to celebrate the core of admirable seniors.

“[The celebration] was really nice,” Duboe said. “You realize a lot about the senior class beyond lacrosse...They were great students, great players, and role models for all of us.”

Indeed, the story line could have been picture perfect: senior Zach Widbin posted two goals and the youth of Duboe, fellow sophomore Jesse Fehr, and freshman Dean Gibbons accounted for the other four goals, demonstrating the present and future strength of the Crimson program.

Unfortunately for Harvard, the final contest of the year also yielded inconsistent play. After spotting the Big Green a 3-0 lead in only 2:58, the Crimson found its footing following a critical timeout by Harvard coach John Tillman.

“[The coaches] just told us to wake up,” Scholl said. “Dartmouth came out really fired up, and we just had to match their intensity. Once we did that, we could play with them.”

Sure enough, after waiting nearly four minutes for its first possession, the Crimson proceeded to dominate the opening half, scoring four unanswered goals to head into the locker room with the lead.

“We got off to a slow start, but I give the guys credit,” Tillman said. “I think after the first five minutes the guys regrouped and really started controlling the game. I felt like coming out of the half we had some momentum.”

But the lead would not last long. Despite opening the third stanza with sharp play from tri-captain and goalie Evan O’Donnell—who took over goalkeeping duties from junior starter Joe Pike, who sustained a broken thumb the preceeding week—and a crafty goal from Gibbons, the Big Green would go on to overwhelm the home team.

After the Crimson had a score nullified for a man in the crease, Dartmouth followed with six unanswered goals to break out to a 9-5 lead that put the game out of reach.

Although a slick field often gave Harvard problems, Tillman made no excuses for Dartmouth’s superior play.

“When we made mistakes, they made us pay,” Tillman said. “We just had a couple [of] breakdowns, and the breakdowns came at critical times.”

The Crimson was flagged for four of its five penalties in the second half, and the Big Green capitalized on all four opportunities. Although Harvard demonstrated at times that it had the talent and gameplan to hang with its opponent, the home squad simply couldn’t put all the pieces together.

While the loss may have left a bitter taste for those playing their last game in crimson, Tillman suggested that the graduating class will still be a part of the team.

“[These seniors] are a group Harvard can be really proud of,” Tillman said. “We’ll miss their personalities in the locker room, but I know they’ll stay close to the program. We’re a family in terms of how we do things, and I think they’ll never be too far away.”

—Staff writer Max Brondfield can be reached at mbrondf@fas.harvard.edu.