CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – In its last tune-up before the final three games of the season – and the three most important – the Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team trounced Harvard yesterday, 11-6 at Jordan Field.
Senior Kevin Leveille had four goals, and classmate Chris Fiore notched his 100th career point in the victory, the Minutemen’s second straight over an Ivy League opponent.
After a hotly-contested first half, the Maroon and White (10-1 2-1 ECAC) was able to do in the final two periods what it could not do last Saturday against Yale – pull away.
The Minutemen scored four goals – three from Leveille – in the third quarter to create the margin, and followed up with two more in the final stanza to polish off their 10th victory of the season.
The 10-1 start is a tie for the program’s best, matched by the 2001 squad.
Senior Tom Fallon, who hadn’t played in more than a month, finally returned to the lineup, making his first appearance at the 8:40 mark of the first quarter.
“The point was just to get out there and test it out, see how it would do in a game situation,” Fallon said. “It felt good to be playing, instead of sitting on the sidelines.”
“It was nice to get [Fallon] in there,” said UMass coach Greg Cannella, who notched his 74th victory at the helm of the Maroon and White. “I’m happy that he’s going to be able to play for us over the last few games.”
Leveille scored the eventual game winner on a clever play started by junior Jeff Zywicki, who quickly set up for an inbound and had it in Leveille’s stick before the Crimson defenders were ready. The 5-foot-10-inch attackman fired a quick shot that had just about everyone in attendance surprised.
Harvard managed to put a little pressure on, mostly due to the expert work of freshman Sean Kane (two goals), but it was held to one goal in the fourth quarter, a late extra-man tally by Matt Primm with one minute left.
It would be too little, too late, though, and the Minutemen cruised to their third straight victory, sending them sailing into this weekend’s clash with rival Georgetown.
“It’s very positive, a good outcome,” Cannella said. “In the first half we weren’t really able to get in the flow; we really didn’t have the ball. I thought Harvard really possessed the ball well. But I was happy with the way it turned out in the second half. You’re happy anytime you win, especially against a good team like Harvard.”
The Minutemen began to pull away in the third quarter, as Kevin Leveille scored three goals in eight minutes – including two tallies in 111 seconds – to give the Minutemen an 8-5 advantage to start the final stanza.
Leveille’s last goal of the period was a combined product of luck and hustle. No. 19 looked to be stuck behind the play after being tangled up with Harvard goalkeeper Jake McKenna, but when Zywicki grabbed a Harvard turnover, Leveille was the recipient of a one-on-one duel with McKenna, and the ball was in the cage when all was said and done.
Arguably the most important goal of the game, though, was a third-quarter tally by Fiore. The midfielder from Freeport, N.Y. set up on the wing for the opening face-off of the half, and found the ball at his feet after the draw. He then streaked across the field and in toward the Crimson net, firing a low bounce shot past McKenna. Fiore needed just 13 seconds to start the half off with a bang, and give the Minutemen a 5-3 lead.
“We weren’t winning face-offs,” Cannella said. “So we put Chris on the wing in the face-offs, in the spot where the kid was putting the ball all day. It’s a great individual play, and it was nothing but making the adjustment at halftime and putting the short stick on the wing.”
“We just switched it up and tried putting the short stick over there,” said Fiore, who reached the century mark for career points on the play. “The ball went down, I just saw an opening and started running.”
UMass took a 4-3 lead into the locker room after a second quarter devoid of any sustained offense. Sean Morris opened the quarter up with a running bounce shot from inside 30 feet. That put the Minutemen up 4-2 with 7:18 to go in the half.
Doug Logigian later mimicked Morris’s feat, only from a little closer, and his shot was in before Bill Schell could react to cut the UMass lead to one.
The first quarter saw the Minutemen get off to an early 2-0 lead on goals from Fiore and Leveille. The latter’s goal was the fruits of Neil Lundberg’s labor, as the big midfielder drew a double team out away from the net. His feed to Leveille found McKenna out of position, and the net gaping for his 22nd goal of the season.
Harvard returned fire, though, with tallies from Steve Cohen and Jeff Gotschall, who scored a workingman’s goal, firing a shot off while he was being hurled to the ground by a check. The Crimson allowed one more goal, though, near the end of the quarter, when Zywicki, stationed 15 feet in front of the net, tipped a Morris attempt past McKenna to give the Minutemen a 3-2 lead at the horn.
