Nearly a week after his team’s title defense was unexpectedly thwarted, Harvard defenseman Dylan Reese was still smarting yesterday.

“Embarrassing,” he said. “Beaten by the freshmen.”

Enjoying a rare Friday night off thanks to their first-round bye in the ECAC tournament, Reese, fellow sophomore Ryan Maki, and senior Brendan Bernakevitch traded in the ice of the Bright Hockey Center for the hardwood of the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC), competing for their houses in Harvard’s intramural dodgeball tournament on March 4.

“That’s what you get when you don’t have a game Friday or Saturday night and you’re looking for something to do,” Reese said.

But the thrill of victory each sought in the absence of a playoff matchup was not to be found on the Cambridge side of the Charles River. Maki and Reese, both competing for reigning champion Dunster House, were bounced by Elm Yard in the quarterfinals, while Bernakevitch met an equally inglorious end—knocked out with the rest of Leverett House after just one game.

“Well, Bernie was probably the worst player there for Leverett,” Reese said. “He got hit by a girl in about four seconds, so that was pretty funny.”

Initially, Reese and Maki—the lone hockey players on a side dominated by the football team—fared significantly better, coasting into the second round. But because more Dunster residents than were allowed to compete at one time had trekked to the MAC, Reese was benched the next time out, which, he suggested, opened the door for the freshmen.

“I feel I was the dominant player there, more or less,” Reese said. “It’s just a shame that I didn’t get to play in the second game because obviously we would have beaten Quincy in the finals.”

Maki for the most part agreed, while lamenting his own roommate’s subpar play.

“I thought Reese was, the one game he played, pretty good,” Maki said. “[My roommate, Brian Barnhill] got out on the first ball he threw. He was really talking a big game beforehand, so I was a little disappointed in him.”

That Dunster’s athlete-heavy lineup could not compensate for such scattered poor performances caught many self-appointed pundits in attendance off guard. But Maki seemed most surprised by the less-than-dominant play of one of his teammates in particular—senior quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

“You know,” Maki joked. “He’s supposed to be this big NFL prospect.”

In fact, Fitzpatrick was among the final Dunsterites sent to the sidelines, but the impact of his draft-bound throwing arm was limited by the patient approach employed by the freshmen.”

“He was actually gunning guys out,” Maki said. “But I think we had some poor strategy, because our big guns were going up there just throwing the ball, when [the freshmen] would have four guys come and hit them when they threw it. I think we just need a better strategy, because we were stacked.”

The Crimson begins the defense of its ECAC championship tomorrow evening, hosting St. Lawrence in the first game of their best-of-three series.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.