No. 14 M. Lax drops OT heartbreaker to Ivy rival Harvard

The Crimson erased a 6-3 Penn lead and stole the victory with a Roger Buttles goal in OT. When the Penn men's lacrosse team stepped onto Harvard's Ohiri Field on Saturday, it met a young Crimson squad brimming with enthusiasm. The scrappy team from Cambridge handed the No. 14 Quakers an 8-7 overtime loss and, in the process, put a stop to any Penn hopes for a perfect Ivy League campaign. The Red and Blue (5-2, 1-1 Ivy League) could have skipped this dose of reality if they had only closed the door on the inexperienced Crimson earlier. "The way to beat a young but talented team is to build a strong lead and keep it there until they give out," Penn senior middie Shane Lavery said. Midway through the third quarter, the Quakers led 6-3 and appeared to be in the driver's seat. On both ends of the field, however, Penn just did not have enough to hold the lead. "I was pleased with our effort level the whole game," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "I think that the problem we had at the end was the same problem we had throughout the game -- we were just unable to finish plays. There were a number of times where we could have made the lead insurmountable but we just didn't get it done." A screamer from the stick of Harvard's Roger Buttles found its way past Schroeder roughly four minutes into sudden death to win the contest for Harvard (2-2, 1-0). Buttles, who scored a game-high five goals, had an open look before he let his winning shot go. This was the most hurtful lapse for Penn in a game where lapses were just too common. "We knew he was one of their big guys going in," junior Pete Janney said. "I guess we just lost sight of him and he capitalized on it." Penn's game plan heading into Saturday was simple. In their first three games, the fledgling Crimson played their best in unsettled situations, so the Quakers' plan was to maintain composure. "We knew that they got most of their goals coming off of broken plays and stuff like that," said Lavery, who notched one tally on Saturday. "We just wanted to play our game, to keep it six-on-six and to keep possession." The Quakers were relatively successful in executing their game plan. They managed to outshoot the Crimson, 28-25, but had trouble finishing. They failed to put away Harvard when it would have counted most. Penn led 4-2 at the half and looked confident early on in the third. Harvard midfielder Michael Baly trimmed the lead to one with 11:49 remaining in the third. The Quakers responded emphatically. Janney and senior middie Jeff Zuckerman scored back-to-back goals to give Penn the largest lead of the game, 6-3. Unfortunately for the Quakers, this flurry was not enough to seal the victory. Penn outshot Harvard by a staggering seven attempts in the third period. But an 11-4 shot advantage does not automatically translate into goals. The Quakers attack came up short, failing to send another one past Harvard's Keith Cynar in the quarter. "That's the one major part of the game where we didn't do a good job. I think we played solid defense overall, but we just couldn't put them away," freshman Mike Iannacone said. Buttles scored his third goal of the contest five minutes into the fourth to make it 6-5 Penn. Iannacone quickly countered, taking a nice dish from Todd Minerley and sending it past Cynar to stretch the Quakers' lead to two at 7-5. Penn would not score again. Harvard's Geoff Watson scored unassisted off of what Iannacone described as a "broken clear." Penn held onto a one-goal margin until Buttles -- this time off a feed from Dana Sprong -- knotted the score with 1:41 left in regulation, forcing overtime. Each goalie had recorded one save in sudden death before a wide-open Buttles sent his final goal of the game past Schroeder. Schroeder, last week's Ivy Player of the Week, stopped 13 Harvard shots, while Crimson netminder Cynar thwarted 15 Penn attempts in return. The Red and Blue fielded a balanced attack on Saturday as seven players had a hand in the scoring. Senior middie Bart Hacking had two in the first half, senior Mark Kleinknecht had one and Lavery notched another before intermission. Except for their inability to shadow the Crimson's explosive Buttles, Penn's defense did a fine job. Faceoff and clear numbers were neck-and-neck for the two squads and Penn had a 47 percent advantage in ground balls won. Harvard had no real statistical advantage, which points to a clear conclusion -- this win was based on intangibles. Harvard's win dashed the Quakers' hopes for an undefeated Ivy League season only two games in, but Penn has no reason to despair. "This league is still wide open," Iannacone said. "Coach Van Arsdale stresses that we're still the same team we were before the game. This loss is a heartbreaker, but we're still right in it." Despite Saturday's loss, this team has gotten off the best Penn for the Quakers in 14 years and has already matched its 1998 win total.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.