Junior atackman Devin Dwyer, shown here on March 3 against Quinnipiac, tied Harvard's single game marks in assists and points as the Crimson outscored the Crusaders, 14-4, in the second half.

The No. 10/13 Harvard men’s lacrosse team issued a statement with a powerful performance at No. 20 Holy Cross, jumping out to an early lead against the Crusaders and withstanding the hosts’ attempts to keep the score close en route to a 20-9 finish.

On Monday evening in Worcester, a strong second quarter performance by Holy Cross (3-3, 2-1 Patriot), held the Crimson to a one-goal lead, but Harvard (4-1, 0-0 Ivy) poured it on out of the break with with three goals in the first thirty seconds of the second half and a dominating, 8-2 performance in the final quarter.

“We came out of the gates really strong,” Harvard coach Chris Wojcik ’96 said. “We struggled a little bit in the second quarter as the game slowed down and Holy Cross got momentum, but we talked about it at halftime, and we challenged our guys to really dominate groundballs and transition in the second half.”

The Crimson has traditionally controlled its matchups with Holy Cross, coming into the game with a 31-0 record in the series, but this year’s Crusader team has been playing at a higher level than in years past. Holy Cross has beaten two top-10 opponents this season.

Harvard looked like it would pull away early, taking a 4-0 lead through the first 13 minutes of the game, propelled by goals from freshman midfielder Joe Lang and junior attackmen Will Walker, Deke Burns, and Devin Dwyer.

Dwyer, who appeared this season on the Tewaaraton Award watch list, assisted both Lang and Walker on this stretch, and would finish with a staggering eight assists in the game. He also scored four goals, and leads the Crimson in points. His assist and point totals for the game are the highest and second-highest totals across the NCAA this season, respectively, and tie for the highest single-game marks in Harvard history.

“Today’s game was a display of how talented a player [Dwyer] can be,” Wojcik said. “He really stepped up and was nearly flawless in his execution as the quarterback of our offense. It was as good of a performance as I’ve ever seen in my time at Harvard.”

The Crusaders came back with two goals late in the first quarter, but the Crimson bounced back quickly with goals from Burns and junior defenseman Walker Kirby. Holy Cross then added three more goals before halftime, bringing the score to 6-5 going into the break.

From there, it was all Harvard.

The onslaught started with another tally from Burns, assisted again by Dwyer, only 10 seconds into the half. Then Dwyer scored two in a row for the Crimson, both within the next twenty seconds, giving Harvard a four-goal lead.

“The start of the second half was huge for us,” Wojcik said. “We came out and it was like ‘Bang, bang, bang,’ and that really allowed us to take the game over. From that point on, we were able to really play with a lot of confidence and it showed.”

The Crusaders would score twice in the third quarter, but these goals were dwarfed by four more goals from the Crimson, three of which were assisted by Dwyer.

Harvard began the fourth quarter by scoring seven goals in a row, pulling ahead to a 19-7 goal lead to solidify the victory.

Throughout the game, the Crimson struggled from the faceoff X, only securing 11 draws to Holy Cross’s 20, but still managed to win the groundball game by a 32-27 margin and limited its own turnovers, giving up only six to Holy Cross’s 21. Junior attackman Brendan Newman led the Harvard defense with three forced turnovers during the game.

Junior goaltender Bryan Moore, in his second start of his career, finished his day with eight saves.

“We still have places to improve,” Moore said. “But the experiences that our young guys have had now, and some of the improvements that we’ve been able to make recently, are really going to put us in a good place going forward.”