“If they get us back on our heels, I feel that might end up hurting us,” McDavitt said. “We’ve got to make sure we stay pretty offensive and look to score instead of letting them be on their [attacking] end of the field.”

The contrast between Harvard’s success and failure was evident in its loss to Northeastern. As soon as the Crimson took the lead, it started playing defensively for the first time all evening, and a few breakdowns later, Northeastern was ahead.

If Harvard does fall behind, it must stick to its game and not force passes as it did upon falling behind in its 4-1 loss to Princeton.

“We started trying big balls up the field because we knew we needed to get goals,” said McDavitt of the Princeton loss. “We took ourselves out of our game by doing that, and it made it a lot easier for them to intercept our balls. We just need to learn to stay poised.”

In contrast, Harvard showed poise once it did fall behind against Northeastern and No. 15 Connecticut earlier this season. The Crimson twice came back from deficits against UConn before ultimately falling, and against Northeastern, Harvard won corners in the final minutes that nearly led to a game-tying goal.

Harvard, with its stingy defense all over the field, will hope that it won’t need to utilize poise when falling behind—only poise from the opening whistle. With the home crowd on hand, and the chance to avenge one of its unsettling losses against either UConn or Northeastern at 2 p.m. Sunday with a victory over Michigan St. tomorrow, the Crimson has every incentive to stay on course.

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.