In its final game of the season, the men's lacrosse team dropped a heartbreaking 13-12 contest to Harvard Saturday afternoon on Memorial Field.
The win boosted the Crimson to 4-2 in the Ivy League, giving them sole ownership of third place behind Brown and Princeton. The Big Green fell to 2-4.
"I thought we played really well," Coach Tim Nelson said. "It was a tough one to lose. Harvard just ended up one goal better."
With 20 seconds left, the Big Green went into the final faceoff trailing 13-12.
Hopes for Dartmouth fans were kept alive when junior John Schneider battled for the ball and the Big Green gained possession with 10 seconds left.
Following a Dartmouth timeout, the Big Green was unable to get a shot off and the clock ticked away, leaving Dartmouth just short of victory.
With two minutes left in the game, the Crimson extended their lead 12-10, but the Big Green would not give up. With a little more than a minute remaining, Scott Hapgood '97 cut the lead to 12-11 with his second goal of the day. Harvard would score again with 28 seconds left. But the Big Green were not through.
Eight seconds later Co-Captain Todd Smith '95 tallied to cut the Big Green deficit to one goal, setting the scene for the final faceoff.
After tying 3-3 at the end of the first quarter, the Big Green came out strong midway through the second quarter. Within two and a half minutes, Dartmouth scored three goals.
Senior Brian White started off the string by taking the ball to the goal and driving one through inside. Smith followed White's lead, while one minute later Jesse Wooten '97 drilled in the third goal to give the Big Green a 6-3 lead.
Harvard had come to play though and late in the second quarter the Crimson retaliated with three goals of their own. Junior Mike Eckert started the streak for the Crimson. Eckert had three goals and three assists for the day.
"With this kind of game you know it will always come down to the end," Nelson said. "We played really well in the first half, but they stuck with us."
With 52 seconds left in the first half, the Big Green called a time out, and 20 seconds later Brian Merritt '97 scored inside to give Dartmouth a 7-6 halftime lead. Merritt ended up with three goals and two assists.
The Big Green came out a little slow in the third quarter and were unable to control the Crimson's extra-man offense. Harvard outscored Dartmouth 4-2 giving the Crimson a 10-9 lead.
"I didn't think we were able to clear the ball as well in the third quarter," Nelson said. "We had good team defense and good team offense, but we weren't getting the ball from defense to offense well enough."
The Big Green ended the season 9-4, and will await final national rankings to be released later this week. Dartmouth was ranked 20th in last weeks USILA poll.
