The Penn men's lacrosse team scored three early goals and was able to control the tempo for much of the game, as the Quakers defeated Harvard for their first Ivy League win of the season.
Penn junior Zandy Reich started off the scoring, and senior Will Phillips extended his points streak to 25 games when he scored off of a pass from sophomore Patrick Rogers to put the Quakers up by two 3:32 into the first period.
Penn sophomore David Andrzejewski managed to add to the lead as he danced around the right side of Harvard's goal, gained space from his defender and hit a cutting Phillips, who slid the ball over the right shoulder of Crimson goalie Jake McKenna.
"We were fired up to come into the game and we just did a real good job executing," Phillips said. "We have been working on finishing our shots and we came out early and finished three quick goals, and that was huge."
A holding penalty by Penn sophomore Joseph Shanagan late in the first led to a goal by the Crimson's Mike McBride on the ensuing man advantage. McBride, left open in the slot, fired a shot past the right foot of Penn senior goalie Ryan Kelly to cut the lead to 3-1.
Harvard continued to gain momentum as Penn senior Patrick Connelly received a one-minute slashing penalty early in the second period. However, Kelly was able to make a key save during the man advantage and stopped Harvard from regaining control of the ball after a scramble in front of the net.
Penn had difficulty clearing the ball throughout the second period. The trouble led to Harvard's second goal, as its sensational freshman Greg Cohen scored his sixth goal of the season to make it 4-2.
"Clearing the ball -- we have had problems with it and we have been working on it and we have been doing some different things," Penn coach Brian Voelker said. "Today it was more stick work, I thought, than guys not being open."
Penn called a timeout to regroup, but Anders Johnson continued the Crimson's momentum. The senior attackman rounded the left side of the goal and fell to the ground as Penn junior Brian Amen lunged at his feet. But Johnson was able to get a shot off and direct the ball into the net just to the left of Kelly.
However, Penn took the game back under control late in the second. Reich lofted the ball down the left side of the field and sophomore James Riordan fired it past McKenna to put the Quakers up, 5-3, at the half.
The Crimson then took two needless penalties within one minute of start of the second half -- one for unnecessary roughness and the other for slashing. Penn was able to capitalize on both opportunities and gain control of the game by a 7-3 margin.
"Anytime you get 30 seconds or a minute like that where you're a man up, you got to cash in," Phillips said. "That was clutch time, it was 5-3 and we needed some goals."
Although the Quakers kept a handle on the game, Cohen continued to give the Quakers trouble in the second half. The freshman put together an impressive sequence of moves within 15 feet of Penn's goal and managed to draw four penalties on one play.
"We put our best guy on him and Pat [Connelly] is used to playing the other team's best player and he has done a very good job on all the kids that he's played," Voelker said. "We played hard on [Cohen], told our guys he's out there, what he likes to do -- I thought we did a pretty good job on him today."
Penalties continued to be a theme in a technically poor fourth quarter and gave the Red and Blue some breathing room as the clock ticked down.
"I think there were times when we were a little bit sloppy, especially clearing the ball," Voelker said. "I thought we gave them a couple of other opportunities that we didn't need to give them. But the bottom line is that we did enough to win the game and I'll take that every time."
Harvard 5, PENN 7
First quarter -- 1, 12:52, Reich (P); 2, 11:28, Phillips (P); 3, 1:37, Phillips 2 (P); 4, 0:06, McBride (H)
Second quarter -- 5, 11:29, Dixson (P); 6, 7:25, Cohen (H); 7, 3:47, Johnson (H); 8, 0:17, Riordan (P)
Third quarter -- none
Fourth quarter -- 9, 14:25, Gilbert (P); 10, 13:35, Andrzejewski (P); 11, 12:23, Calvert (H); 12, 1:10, Kane (H)
