With the score tied at 3-3 coming out of halftime, Zach Caldwell '10 struck four times for the men's lacrosse team to help Bruno to an 8-7 win over Harvard at Stevenson Field. The win avenges Brown's close loss to the Crimson last year and makes the No. 14 Bears 9-2 overall and an undefeated 4-0 in the Ivy League.
The first half was back and forth, with neither team able to get more than a one goal lead. Each team had a few chances in the opening minutes, with the best coming when a dangerous Harvard pass snuck right in front of the net but the attack who came up with it fired wide.
Finally, Thomas Muldoon '10 broke through for Bruno seven minutes into the game when he used a Reade Seligmann '09 pick, dodged from right to left and beat Harvard goalie Joe Pike.
Harvard had a few more chances to equalize in the middle of the first quarter, but was unable to convert, even when it got in close on Brown goalie Jordan Burke '09. The Brown defense has been excellent all season at forcing low percentage shots, but Wednesday the Crimson found their way near Burke's crease.
"Harvard is a smart-shooting team compared to everyone else," said Head Coach Lars Tiffany '90. "They are selective in where they shoot from."
As usual, Burke was up to the Crimson's close challenges, as he made five of his 13 saves in the first quarter.
"I love those situations because I'm not supposed to make those saves, so when I do it can be a momentum changer," Burke said.
Harvard finally beat Burke with 3:54 to play in the first quarter just after a man-up opportunity ended. It came after Brown had already killed off three penalties.
"We got a few penalties early on," Burke, an All-American candidate, said. "We don't like to be killing penalties but we are confident with our man-down. It's not something we want, but it's not something we're scared of either."
Harvard largely controlled the possession in the first half, mostly because it won 14 of 19 face-offs. Face-offs were an Achilles' heel for the Bears last season, and though they have improved this season, it is still not one of the team's strongest areas.
"Their face-off guy is good," Burke said. "It seems like every Ivy team has a stud face-off guy."
Tiffany said that Harvard's deliberate offense made the discrepancy even more obvious.
"Its ten extra possessions in a lacrosse game and that's a lot," he said. "Against a patient offense like Harvard you really feel it."
Despite the possession imbalance which led to a 38-18 shot advantage for Harvard, Brown stayed tough to force a 3-3 tie at the half.
Brown's two goals came from attack Kyle Hollingsworth '09. His second goal came on a helter-skelter play, where Jake Hardy '10 kicked a loose ball toward midfield. It was then kicked back by a Harvard defenseman at midfield, and defender Peter Fallon '11 grabbed it out of midair and started a fast break the other way.
Fallon dropped the ball, but then flicked it to his right to attack Jack Walsh '09 who caught it one-handed. Walsh flipped it to Hollingsworth running towards the net with no defenders in front of him. Just as he was passing the cage at full speed, Hollingsworth underhanded the ball by Pike in the bottom-left corner.
"Highlight film for sure," Tiffany said. "That will be the number one play of the year on the highlight reel at the end of year. Top play of the year."
Bruno jumped out to a lead two minutes into the second half, when Walsh drove along the right side of the goal, drawing the defense, and found Caldwell up top with some room to wind up and score his first goal.
Brown had a chance to extend the lead when Harvard committed two penalties on the same play, but the Bears didn't even get a shot on net due to sloppy offense.
Instead, Harvard's Dean Gibbons scored with 7:53 to play in the third quarter when he found himself all alone right in front of Burke after a scramble for a ground ball.
Harvard scored again to take a 5-4 lead with 4:08 left in the third, but then Caldwell took over.
After the Brown ride forced a turnover near the end of the third quarter and a subsequent time out by the Crimson, Caldwell took the ball up top, dodged his man and ripped a shot by Pike to tie the game at five.
"Once I scored that first one, coach thought I'd have success dodging from top-center," Caldwell said. "I had a lot of success with that last year. We had been trying a lot of wing dodges but we dodged from the top once before and it worked."
Caldwell dodged his man and scored on the run again with 11:40 to play in the game, giving Bruno a 6-5 lead.
Harvard answered to tie it with 7:37 to play just after a man-up situation was ending. But Caldwell came back again to put Brown ahead for good. Muldoon picked up a loose ball after a scrum behind the cage and lobbed it into the middle, where Caldwell caught it, attacked the net and beat Pike for the fourth time.
"It was a real scramble," Caldwell said. "It was a great, hard play. Thomas made a great look."
Brown then turned it on even further, drawing another pair of penalties with less than three minutes remaining in the game. This time the man-up unit converted, as Muldoon fired a shot from the top that went off of the left pipe, off of the goalie, and in.
Gibbons scored his fourth goal of the day with 11 seconds left, but all 1,489 fans knew it was too late.
"We really appreciated almost 1,500 fans on a Wednesday night - and it wasn't the warmest night," Tiffany said.
The Bears will be at home again at 7 p.m. on Saturday, as they hope to extend their winning streak to nine against cross-town rival Providence College at Stevenson Field.
