It was do or die for the Red and Blue.
In Saturday’s game against Harvard — the penultimate Ivy League game of the team’s season — Penn lived to fight another day. The Quakers were able to stay in contention to defend their Ivy title, edging out the Crimson in a tight 10-9 game.
Harvard came out of the gate strong, scoring the first two goals of the game. After those two, freshman midfield Kevin McGeary got Penn (5-6, 2-3 Ivy) on the board with 3:11 left in the first quarter while Crimson midfield Brian Fischer was in the penalty box for a minute due to a slashing offense.
From the first minute onward, the Crimson held onto the lead. But the Quakers were never far behind, keeping the score within two goals of Harvard’s total for all but nine minutes in the third period, when the Crimson (6-6, 1-3) led 6-3.
Penn managed to tie the score with just under five minutes left in the game, as senior attack Isaac Bock scored off an assist from junior attack Nick Doktor to bring the score to nine apiece.
Bringing his game full circle, McGeary scored the last goal of the game for Penn with 2:32 left in the fourth period, giving the Quakers a 10-9 advantage — their first and only lead of the game.
But the score at the end of those 60 minutes was the only one that mattered, fortunately for the Quakers.
The game-winning goal was the freshman’s second of the fourth quarter, capping off a hat trick for last week’s Ivy League Rookie of the Week.
Those three goals bring the freshman’s total to 13 for the season and give the Malvern Square, Pa., native his fourth multi-goal game of 2015.
Rounding out Penn’s attack were Bock, Doktor and senior Joe McCallion, who helped the Quakers to victory by scoring two a piece. Junior midfield Pat Berkery also added to the offensive total, netting one in the end of the first period.
On the other end of the field, goalkeepers Jimmy Sestilio and John Lopes split the game 30 minutes each with a combined 11 stops for the hour.
The two have been splitting most games in goal. One notable exception was Penn’s matchup against Brown last week in which Sestilio went the whole stretch for the Red and Blue, producing their first Ivy win of the season.
In Saturday’s game against the Crimson, Lopes did his bit by only allowing three goals into the net in the second half.
Harvard’s counterpart, goalkeeper Bryan Moore, could not stop the seven second-half goals made by the Quakers, which allowed them to pull past the Crimson at the most important juncture.
Looking ahead, Penn has just one more Ivy game left to play against Dartmouth next weekend at home. Next Saturday is Alumni Day for both men’s and women’s lacrosse, which will give both squads large home crowds for the pair of important match ups.
With the Big Green currently tied for last place in the league and on a three-game losing streak, prospects for the Red and Blue seem good as they wrap up their 2015 campaign.
A win for Penn would cement their position in the Ivy League Tournament at the beginning of May. A strong performance in the Ancient Eight’s season finale could put the Quakers in the running to defend their 2014 Ivy crown and make the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive year.
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