The only thing stranger than the 30-second snowstorm during Wednesday's men's lacrosse game was perhaps the feeling that the team had afterwards. For the first time in several years, the Big Green were the victims of an upset in an Ivy League game.
The Big Green, ranked 17th in the most recent national poll, fell 8-6 to an unranked but very talented Yale squad on Memorial Field. The loss dropped Dartmouth to 7-2 overall and 2-1 in the Ivies.
"This is a tough loss but by no means is it a season-ending loss," Dave Hehir '95 said. "Sometimes a tough loss like this can be just what a team needs to motivate a late-season surge."
A late-game surge was what Dartmouth really needed on Wednesday. A 2-2 halftime score quickly turned into a 4-2 Big Green advantage in the opening minutes of the third quarter, but Dartmouth couldn't seem to put the Elis away.
Goals by Todd Smith '95 and Brian Merritt '97, the Ivy rookie of the week for the past two weeks, gave Dartmouth the two goal edge with 12:10 to play in the third quarter. Yale fought back to even the score at four with 5:11 left in the quarter.
Junior Eric Welsh's second goal of the day gave the Big Green a 5-4 lead with 1:10 left in the third and began a frantic 70-second stretch that saw as many goals scored as the first half did.
Yale wasted little time tying the game, as the Elis won the ensuing face-off and charged down the field to score. Only 10 seconds had ticked off the clock.
With 32 seconds left in the third quarter, the Big Green again took a one-goal lead on a spectacular underhanded shot by Scott Hapgood '97. Welsh had the assist.
But again the Elis had a quick answer, tying the game 6-6 with only 18 seconds remaining in the period.
Neither team could take control of the game in the first minutes of the fourth quarter, but Brian White '95 did his best to try to fire up the Dartmouth team.
With 8:30 to play, White looked like he momentarily forgot which sport he was playing when he crushed a Yale midfielder the same way he crushes Yale wide receivers. The huge hit gave Dartmouth some brief momentum, but the Big Green could still not capitalize.
A Dartmouth penalty led to Yale's game-winning goal, which was scored with 6:32 left in the game. The Elis added the insurance goal with 25 seconds to play.
Ned Hazard '96, who made last week's Ivy League Honor Roll, continued his strong play in goal with 16 saves, several coming on one-on-one opportunities.
Welsh finished the day with two goals and two assists; Merritt and Bowler each had one goal and two assists.
"We did not play up to our potential today on both sides of the field," Hehir said. "A few individuals had big games, but we didn't have the team effort we needed to beat a team of Yale's caliber."
Dartmouth will need that team effort tomorrow when they face Brown in Providence. The Bears humiliated the Big Green last year, 26-12.
