When the two teams faced each other earlier in the season in the first game of the ECACs, Navy spoiled Harvard’s hopes for success early in the season. The Midshipmen won the contest 11-10 by scoring a controversial goal in the final seconds of the game, after the buzzer rang to signal the end of the game but before the clock ran out.
Though they lost, just being able to play Navy for the third-place spot at Easterns was exciting, especially for the seniors. Four years ago, the Harvard water polo program took third in the Eastern Division, and after two disappointing seasons, the seniors are happy the team is nearly back to where it was when they arrived.
“My freshman year…I took it for granted that was how it was going to be,” Offsay said. “Now, I’m leaving with the team on a high note. They’re playing well and getting along well. I’ll take that away as much as how I actually played.”
PRINCETON 12, HARVARD 3
Princeton showed the Crimson it was going to dominate the entire game—and ruin Harvard’s hopes for playing in the championship game—within the first seven minutes, when the Tigers jumped out to a strong four-goal lead and held Harvard scoreless.
“Coach called a time out and told us we needed to make it up one goal at a time,” Voith said. “But eventually their lead was just insurmountable.”
Two of the Crimson’s three goals came in the second quarter, when it outscored Princeton 2-1. Harvard was able to eke out one more before the game was over in the fourth. But the Tigers, up 5-2 at the half, scored seven goals in the latter part of the game.
“We just weren’t executing and doing the things we did against Salem,” Offsay said.
Offsay, Gerrity, and freshman Brian Kuczynski each netted a goal in the losing effort.
HARVARD 9, SALEM INTERNATIONAL 8
After playing a closely contested 27:42, the Crimson’s hopes for winning its opening bout at Easterns rested upon the shoulders of its defense.
In the final moments of the game, a Salem player drew an ejection, giving the Tigers the opportunity to tie up the game and send it into overtime. But on Salem’s final drive, Offsay and Lynch blocked the final shot fired at the goal, sending Harvard to the second round.
The four goals Harvard scored in the third quarter—two back-to-back from Offsay on passes from Lynch and Gerrity—proved to be crucial to its success, especially since the team was shut out for the final period of the game.
“We had never seen Salem before, and they had never seen us,” Voith said. “But by the second half we knew where their offensive threats were. Their offense became predictable.”
Throughout the game, Offsay and Gerrity led the offense, scoring four and three goals, respectively. Sophomore Mike Garcia netted the other two goals for the team.
All eight of Salem’s goals were scored by two players, Danilo Lazarevic and Tomislav Popovic, who tallied four goals each and made sophomore Eric Byrd work hard to keep the Crimson in the game.
“They had two great players on their team who were going to get their goals,” Offsay said. “But Eric did a nice job in goal of keeping it close.”
The contest was evenly matched for the first two periods, with the teams trading the lead. Harvard and Salem were tied at three after the first quarter and at five after the half.
“We knew if we stuck with the game we had coming in we would win,” Voith said.
—Staff writer Megha Parekh can be reached at parekh@fas.harvard.edu.