The problem is that UMass scored 19 seconds later. Glass converted a tic-tac-toe-like passing display after the face-off and beat Lyng with six seconds remaining.
"They did a great job of moving the ball on us and getting it inside," Lyng said. "They've got quick sticks and good sticks."
Two more times during the game the Crimson would cut the deficit to one, but it never got the equalizer.
Eckert made a great effort early in the second quarter, making several cuts and whipping a shot through the UMass goalie Tom LoPresti's five hole to cut the deficit to 4-3. Eckert almost tied the game with 7:43 left before halftime, but LoPresti made a big save to preserve UMass's lead.
The Minutemen added a goal to hold a 5-3 halftime lead, but junior Chris Wojcik brought the Crimson to 5-4 1:17 into the third period, cutting across the width of the field from 30 feet out and beating the netminder.
However, that would be Harvard's last goal for practically 27 minutes, in which the Minutemen scored three times.
"We didn't generate any kind of offense," Harvard coach Scott Anderson said. "All we needed was a little burst of offense, but we didn't get it."
The crusher was the Minutemen's seventh goal.
Lyng had made several huge saves in the third quarter to hold the UMass lead to 6-4, but the sophomore made one unfortunate mistake. Lyng's attempted pass upfield was intercepted by Glass, who deposited the ball past the bewildered goaltender with 1:11 left in the third quarter.
With the three-goal margin, the Minutemen played a game of keepaway and succeeded from allowing good Harvard offensive pressure until the final two minutes when Eckert and Gaffney scored to make the final 8-6.
"They're pretty good, but we should have beaten them," Gaffney said. "We just played terribly. Our offense is not playing very well."
Four losses in a row will very often take its toll on a team. Harvard definitely is feeling down, but it has been facing top-quality competition in its last four games--Notre Dame, Brown, Princeton and UMass.
"We need a game where we can just dominate and get some confidence back," Anderson said. "It's a hard thing to do when you have opponents [like the last four]."
Arch rival Yale comes to Ohiri Field on Saturday for a 1 p.m. matchup. Yale, like Harvard, has struggled recently.
For Harvard, it's a must win. A season that started so promisingly at 4-1 has now been turned upside down with four straight losses, and a win over the hated Bulldogs definitely would ease the tension the team is feeling.
"We better beat Yale," Gaffney said.
UMASS, 8-6 at Ohiri Field UMass 4 1 2 1 -- 8 Harvard 2 1 1 -- 6
G: UM--Glass (5), Murphy, Grande, DelPercio; Harvard--Eckert (3), Gaffney, Ames, Wojcik, S: UM--LoPresti 11; Harvard--Lyng 17.