Senior attackman Greg Cohen, shown here in earlier action, scored two hat tricks in a 13-9 victory against Dartmouth on Saturday afternoon, netting a career-high six goals in his final game for the Crimson. He notched three consecutive scores in Harvard's

With little hope of another surprise NCAA tournament bid and only the chance to reach .500 in league play on the line, the Harvard men’s lacrosse team entered Saturday night’s season finale at Dartmouth with little to prove—to everyone else.

But for the team itself, there was much to be gained, and it showed as the Crimson (5-7, 3-3 Ivy) used a strong second-half surge to beat the Big Green (5-10, 1-5 Ivy) by a 13-9 margin in Hanover, N.H.

Senior attackman Greg Cohen saved his best for last, scoring a career-high six goals en route to the Harvard win. It was the only time in four years that the Class of 2007 had beaten its rival.

Four of Cohen’s goals came during a third quarter that saw the Crimson outscore the Big Green, 6-3. That helped Harvard to a 10-5 advantage entering the fourth quarter that would hold up despite a late Dartmouth run.

“Greg was very confident going into the game, and he had a good matchup against his guy and knew he could go his way,” co-captain Brian Mahler said. “He shot the ball well and kept going to the goal and creating offense. You can definitely tell why he’s an All-American on a day like today.”

Mahler also played an integral role in the team’s success, assisting on four of the Crimson’s scores to go along with one goal. Senior attackman Evan Calvert had a hat trick and an assist, while junior attackman Brooks Scholl had two goals and two assists in the win.

“In general, it was a team effort,” Mahler said. “We had a lot of goals assisted on, and there’s no question this was the best game we’ve played all year—and the most important and memorable one as well.”

Harvard got off to a blistering start against the Big Green when sophomore defensemen Eric Posner scored just 12 seconds into the game to give the Crimson a lead that it would never relinquish. Just 14 seconds later, Mahler scored on a feed from freshman defensemen Billy Geist, giving Harvard a two-goal lead less than half a minute into the contest. Cohen would beat Dartmouth goalie Michael Novosel once more in the period, but the Big Green scored two late goals to pull within one.

A lone Calvert goal in the second quarter made the score 4-2 entering halftime.

“Greg Cohen, Brian Mahler and Evan Calvert were just moving the ball quickly tonight,” co-captain John Henry Flood said. “Our three senior attackmen all closed their careers with unbelievable performances.”

Flood himself continued his own dominance, winning 19 of 26 faceoffs and helping the Crimson to a big advantage in the possession battle. He entered the game ranked second in the entire nation in faceoffs, having won 66.4 percent of his tries.

“He was just dominant,” Mahler said of Flood. “It’s the one thing we’ve been able to rely on, to fall back on. No matter who we’re playing, we know he’s going to dominate.”

It is Dartmouth which has been especially kind to Flood in recent years. In last year’s heart-wrenching 14-13 triple-overtime home loss, he set a career high by winning 25 of 31 tries. It was a loss on the final try, however, that would lead to the game-winning goal by the Big Green.

“We really ended our season with a bad taste in our mouth—that loss was crushing,” Flood said of last year. “We talked all week about sending [the seniors] off on a positive note. We just wanted to finish strong, and that’s what we did.”

The win gives Harvard a share of third place in the Ivy League. Moreover, the victory over a Dartmouth team that lost three games to top teams—No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Virginia and No. 12 Albany—by single-goal margins further legitimized a Crimson schedule considered one of the toughest in the entire country.

“This shows that we have a great team,” Flood said. “We had some great wins and some lapses, but we hope that this year’s team is able to take this into next year.”

Noticeably absent from the Harvard lineup in the team’s final game was senior midfielder Carle Stenmark, who left last week’s game against Yale early in the contest due to injury and wasn’t available for Saturday’s game with the Big Green. It was perseverance in the face of a number of injuries—most notably the ankle sprain that kept Calvert out of the first two Crimson contests—that highlighted the squad’s hardened spirit throughout the season.

“We had high expectations going into the season, and we faced a lot of adversity,” Mahler said. “We were losing some early games and losing guys to injury, but for this team to be as resilient as they were, to grow stronger and more united as the weeks went on, that all came out in this game. We learned about where the team’s headed in the future.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.