Revenge was in the air as the Harvard men’s lacrosse team sent Bucknell packing with a solid win, 12-9.

After getting destroyed by the Bison in last year’s matchup by a final score of 15-4, this year’s Crimson (1-0) played an impressive game in its season opener Saturday afternoon at Jordan Field.

“It’s huge for us,” junior attackman Steve Cohen said. “We take a lot of pride in the fact that we’ve worked really hard, and it’s nice to see the results.”

Harvard started out the game with a big statement from freshman attackman Brooks Scholl, who scored the first goal at 13:48 in the first period.

Scholl dodged around back of goal, stopped quickly, rolled back, and went 1-on-1 against the Bison goalie to score unassisted.

But the Crimson was not able to keep the lead for long, as Bucknell came back with two quick goals at 10:49 and 9:32 in the first half, bringing the score to 2-1 in the visiting team’s favor.

At 3:33, Cohen registered Harvard’s second goal of the day as he caught a pass from sophomore Carle Stenmark and cut toward the goal, dove, and shot towards the low far-side to tie the score at two.

“[On man-up], we just try to keep working the ball around, and eventually the defense will miss an assignment,” Cohen said. “The defense just wasn’t there.”

The Bison followed with two easy goals, one on a man-up opportunity, to bring the score to 4-2. But even with the easy goals, the Crimson was not worried.

“I thought [the defense] played great,” freshman goalie Evan O’Donnell said. “The shots that they gave up were all very savable.”

But that was all just a prologue to Harvard’s eventual domination, which was established in the beginning of the second period and continued into the third as the Crimson put together nine-goal scoring streak.

Junior midfielder Jake Samuelson fed freshman attackman Zach Widbin the ball, who then fired an underhanded shot to the far-side for Harvard’s third goal of the game, closing the gap to 4-3.

Junior attackman Sean Kane then tied the game when he took a running jump-shot for the goal.

The onslaught continued as Nick La Fiura checked the stick of a Bison player, creating a loose-ball situation and a golden opportunity for Harvard.

Sophomore midfielder Evan Calvert picked up the ball and, with a fast break, was able to pass to Widbin, who put the Crimson up 5-4 with an underhanded shot. It would be the last lead change of the game.