When the Harvard men’s water polo team traveled to New London, Conn., to face its last two regular season competitors, it wasn’t focused on playing its best games of the season.

All the Crimson wanted to do was win and come home.

And win it did. With a 10-7 victory over Fordham and an 11-9 defeat of Iona, this year’s squad swam into its own place in Harvard history.

The wins move the Crimson (9-7) to 6-1 in the Northern Division, guaranteeing the team a second-place finish behind St. Francis. In all water polo seasons past, Harvard has never done better.

When the Crimson goes to the Northern Championships in two weeks, it will now have a much weaker opponent in the first round. Though Harvard will have to play St. Francis—whom it lost to earlier in the season—to win Northerns, the players are more excited about placing high enough in the tournament to get to the Eastern Championships.

“Our main goal was to make it Easterns,” co-captain Rick Offsay said. “We made that as easy as possible.”

Harvard has won its last five contests against teams in the Northern Division, defeating tough opponents such as MIT, Brown and Iona.

HARVARD 10, FORDHAM 7

With junior goalie Robbie Burmeister sidelined due to an injury, sophomore Eric Byrd had to step into the cage for the Crimson, starting his first game of the season.

“He played pretty well for his first complete game,” sophomore John Voith said. “We tried to step up the defense on the perimeter to help him out.”

Harvard jumped out to an early 8-2 lead, sparked by a strong offensive effort. The lead gave the Crimson a chance to get more teammates playing time and scoring opportunities.

Offsay, senior co-captain Mike Gerrity, junior Andrei Boros and sophomore Mike Garcia each netted two goals. Senior Evan Kaseguma and freshman Brian Kuczynski scored the other two goals for Harvard.

“Eric was strong, especially in the first half,” Offsay said. “He did a good job of coordinating the defense.”

Though the Rams trailed by six goals, Fordham slowly fought back and threatened Harvard by bringing the score within one. The Crimson defense, anchored by Byrd, was able to hold the Rams and ultimately take the victory.

“We took care of business and didn’t give in, which allowed us to get the win,” Offsay said.