CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Nine different Crimson scored a goal Tuesday night as the Harvard men's lacrosse team picked up a 16-12 win over Holy Cross at Soldiers Field Lacrosse Stadium.
Peter Schwartz and Alex White led the offensive attack with five points each. Schwartz turned in his first career hat trick with four goals and one assist, while White scored three goals for the second consecutive game to go with two assists. Devin Dwyer and Daniel Eipp both registered two goals in the victory as Jason Gonos, Sean McDonagh, Henry Mumford, Brendan Newman and Brian O'Toole tallied one apiece.
Harry Krieger came away with 11 saves in goal to improve to 1-1 on the year. He was aided by Gabriel Mendola and Pat Fiorvanti who each recorded career-highs with seven ground balls and five ground balls, respectively.
Mendola (9-14) and Rick Molé (12-19) combined to win 21-of-33 face offs. Harvard (1-1) also won the ground ball battle, 29-21, but was successful on just 11-of-17 clear attempts. Holy Cross (1-2), meanwhile, converted 15-of-19 clears and was led by Clay Haarmann who registered seven goals and one assist for eight points.
The Crimson controlled play in the first quarter and outscored the Crusaders, 6-1. White put the first point on the board just 55 seconds into the action, and then assisted on Schwartz's first goal for a 2-0 lead at the 13:00 mark. Dwyer, McDonagh, Schwartz and Newman each tacked on goals to make it 6-0 before Haarmann ended the run with Holy Cross' first tally of the day.
Haarmann scored a second goal to open the second quarter but was followed by markers from Mumford and Gonos to push the Harvard lead to 8-2. Haarmann and Schwartz traded goals to keep the margin at six, 9-3, but the Crusaders closed the half with four straight goals to pull themselves back within two before the break, 9-7.
Terry McKenna made it a one-goal game with 11:31 to play in the third quarter, 9-8, but Harvard went on to score five of the next six goals to extend its lead to 14-9. Eipp began the run with his first score of the year before Dwyer found White for his second of the day. White completed his hat trick after a Myles Gillespie goal and scores from Schwartz and O'Toole gave the Crimson its five-goal advantage.
Dwyer closed the frame out with his second tally off a feed from White, sending the game into the fourth quarter with Harvard on top, 15-10. Haarmann scored twice in the stanza as Holy Cross attempted to comeback, but Eipp's second goal with 2:41 remaining gave the Crimson its final margin, 16-12.
Harvard will head out on the road for the first time this weekend to face Hofstra Saturday, March 2 at 1 p.m.