Sophomore goalkeeper Harry Krieger remains on his knees after Cornell’s David Lau put away a last-gasp score with a little over a minute left to play in Saturday’s game at Harvard Stadium. For the third straight year, Harvard dropped a 13-12 decision against the Big Red.

Thirteen to twelve.

It’s the score that has haunted the Harvard men’s lacrosse team’s last two matches against Cornell over the past two years—both one-goal late-game defeats.

But this year was going to be different. Yesterday afternoon, the Crimson had just completed a massive comeback to jump ahead, 9-7, on the No. 6 Big Red. Cornell fought back to tie things up, but Harvard would not back down and grabbed the lead again, 11-9.

The Big Red scored two straight, and the game was tied once more. But Crimson senior attack Matt Hull took a pass from classmate Dean Gibbons in front of the net and fired a shot past Cornell goalie Andrew West with 5:03 left in the game to put Harvard up one, 12-11.

Harvard was on the verge of pulling the upset, of beating the Big Red for the first time since 1999.

But 43 seconds later, Cornell’s David Lau picked up a rebound that came off a blocked attempt by Crimson goaltender Harry Krieger and fired it right past him. In the blink of an eye, the game was tied.

With 1:18 remaining, it was Lau again who took a pass, moved left, and beat Krieger with a ground-ball shot to put the Big Red ahead.

Harvard was unable to score the rest of the way, and the final buzzer sounded with the Crimson dropping a heartbreaker to Cornell once again.

Thirteen to twelve.

“Another tough one to Cornell,” junior co-captain Kevin Vaughan said. “We’re pretty crushed right now. We thought we had it.”

The Big Red (8-2, 4-0 Ivy) dominated the first period, shutting out Harvard (6-4, 1-2) defensively and outshooting the Crimson, 19-7.

After both teams turned the ball over on their opening possessions, Krieger and Cornell starting goaltender AJ Fiore—who was replaced in the third quarter—each made a series of saves early in the contest.

At 6:11, the Big Red got on the board first after Lau came around the net on the left side, made a move around his defender, and fired a low shot that beat Krieger.

Two minutes later, after a string of good ball movement, Cornell’s Roy Lang cut towards the net and was double-teamed, leaving teammate Steve Mock wide-open in front, and Mock put the Big Red up, 2-0.

“We were playing a ton of defense [in the first],” Vaughan said. “We really didn’t have the ball for so long...they would tire our D down, and that creates offense.”