13th-Ranked Men's Lacrosse Falls in Ivy Opener at 15th-Ranked Harvard

Saturday, March 19

Cambridge, Mass.

1 p.m.

Brown University

5-2, 0-1

Harvard

4-1, 1-0

Brown

Harvard

Photo by: Brian Foley

13th-Ranked Men's Lacrosse Falls in Ivy Opener at 15th-Ranked Harvard

3/19/2022 4:17:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score Photo Gallery

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The 13th-ranked Brown Bears (5-2, 0-1 Ivy League) scored the afternoon's final three goals, but could not find a fourth as the 15th-ranked Harvard Crimson (4-1, 1-0 Ivy League) took a 12-11 home win Saturday at Jordan Field.

"It was a league game on the road and in a lacrosse game there's a certain amount of plays and they made more plays than us, so credit to them," said head coach Mike Daly. "That game for Brown is on the coaches as it always is when we lose; our team wasn't ready to play a league game on the road and we're back to work to fix those issues and turn them around. Mullin played a great game, I'm sure there are a lot of shots we'd like to have back; but at the end of the day, they made their shots and we didn't make our shots."

Darian Cook and Devon McLane found the back of the net in the opening quarter for the Bears. McLane's tally came on Brown's second EMO of the afternoon. The Crimson struck for four goals in the first 15 minutes for the early lead with Hayden Cheek scoring twice with Miles Botkiss and Austin Madronic each scoring once.

McLane, Brian Antonelli, and Ryan Aughavin found the back of the net in the second quarter as the Bears trailed by a goal at the half, 6-5. Nolen Rockefeller assisted on the McLane goal and Cook picked up the helper on the Antonelli tally.

For the Crimson, Cheek and Owen Gaffney scored to maintain its lead. Matthew Gunty went 12-for-13 at the X and picked up 10 ground balls, a career-high. As a team, Brown held an 18-10 edge in ground balls in the first half.

Between the pipes, Harvard's Kyle Mullin (18 saves) recorded 11 saves in the first half to keep the Crimson on top. Sophomore Connor Theriault (8 saves) recorded three saves in the opening 30 minutes.

Aughavin scored 43 seconds into the third quarter to tie the game at 6-6. However, Madronic scored just seven seconds later to put the Crimson back on top.

From there, Harvard added a pair to make it 9-6 before Cook's second of the afternoon brought the Bears back within two. Aughavin then scored his third of the afternoon for his second hat trick of the season and 10th of his career to make it 9-8.

Cheek tallied his fourth goal of the game late in the third quarter to give the Crimson a 10-8 lead heading into the final 15 minutes of play.

Harvard pushed its lead to 12-8 with the opening pair of goals to start the fourth quarter, but the Bears battled back as Cook made it 12-9 with his third of the game and McLane tallied his third and fourth goals of the game to make it 12-11 Harvard with 3:55 remaining.

Brown called timeout with 11.4 seconds remaining following a successful clear from Trevor Yeboah-Kodie. On the ensuing play, McLane had a final-second shot to tie the game, but Mullin recorded his 18th save of the game to give the Crimson the victory.

GAME NOTES

Gunty finished the game 22-for-26 at the X with 15 ground balls. The 22 faceoffs won and 15 ground balls both marked career-highs.
Brown finished the game with the edge in shots (48-34), shots on goal (29-20), and ground balls (27-23). Harvard finished the game 19 turnovers, one fewer than Brown.
Both teams finished 2-for-5 on man-up opportunities. Brown finished 10-for-13 on clears while Harvard went 14-for-20.

Brown returns to Stevenson-Pincince Field to host the UMass Minutemen next Saturday (Mar. 26). Saturday's non-conference game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. and will stream on ESPN+. Click here to purchase tickets.

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