CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The 16th-ranked Harvard men's lacrosse team scored five times in the first quarter and allowed only one goal in the first half as the Crimson earned its first Ivy League win of the season, topping Penn, 11-4, Saturday afternoon at Harvard Stadium. The trio of Terry White, Jeff Cohen and Jason Duboe netted two goals apiece, while Duboe also handed out two assists.

Joe Pike made four stops for his fourth win of the season, helping the Crimson improve to 4-1 and 1-0 in Ivy action. Pike's counterpart, Joe Hegener, stopped nine shots for Penn, which falls to 1-4 and 0-2 in the Ancient Eight.

In the first game of the year at Harvard Stadium, the Crimson fell behind, 1-0, on a goal by Penn's Morgan Griff at 11:16, but quickly rebounded. White found the back of the net after receiving a pass from Dave Dobrosky at 7:56, starting a 5-0 run by Harvard. Travis Burr tallied an unassisted score at 6:53, followed by a goal by Christian Oberbeck off an assist from Nick Smith only 19 seconds later.

Eric Posner joined his teammates with a score at 3:11, and Cohen capped the goal streak by beating the horn, scoring with only two seconds remaining in the quarter.

Harvard fired 10 shots in the second and Penn mustered seven, but neither team netted a goal in the frame, as the game remained 5-1 entering the break. Through two quarters, Harvard led in shots, 18-12, and in ground balls, 12-10.

The Quakers opened the scoring in the third with an unassisted tally by Garvey Heiderman at 14:32. Max Motschwiller made it a 6-2 game when he beat Hegener at 11:48, but once again, Penn cut into the Crimson lead as Casey O'Rourke fired a shot past Pike at 10:27.

With Harvard holding a 6-3 lead, White was the catalyst for another Crimson run, as the team netted four straight goals in the third and fourth quarters. White picked up his second goal at 8:29, and Duboe teamed up with Cohen for the second time with 1:56 remaining in the third. Duboe netted the game's only man-up goal midway through the fourth at 8:02 and later added an even-strength score at 4:48. In the final minutes of play, Penn's Dan Savage made it a 10-4 game at 4:02, and Dean Gibbons capped the scoring with his seventh of the season at 2:44.

The Crimson finished the game a perfect 15-for-15 on clear attempts, while Penn was 15-of-16. Harvard outshot the Quakers, 22-6 in the second half and 40-18 for the game. Oberbeck won 10-of-19 face-offs and tied Max Gottschall with a team-best four ground balls.

Harvard will begin a four-game span away from Cambridge by playing at Georgetown Wednesday, March 25.

2009-03-21