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The Harvard men’s lacrosse team found itself in an unfamiliar position within the first 66 seconds of Tuesday’s road contest with Holy Cross. Junior midfielder Matthew Fischetti fired a shot past Crimson junior goalie Robert Shaw to put the Crusaders up a goal. It was a spot that Harvard had not found itself in since last May’s Ivy League Tournament Final.

The early deficit served as a wake-up call of sorts for the Crimson as the guests scored the game’s next three goals and held on to beat Holy Cross, 12-9. Attacker Morgan Cheek led the way for Harvard (2-0) as the junior notched three goals to push his season total to seven.

“Morgan’s our best player and not only that, he’s also our hardest worker,” tri-captain Matt Ryan said. “It’s not a surprise for me to see him producing at this level. He’s been working his tail off for a long time and he’s really stepped up as a leader.”

The Crusaders (0-3) scored the game’s final four goals but it proved not to be enough. Three different Holy Cross players each tallied two goals on the afternoon.

“I think for the most part everyone was going hard, we had the right mindset,” tri-captain Sean Coleman said. “At times, we looked really good. The coaches have done an awesome job of making the practices really competitive and really hard so that when we hit the field on game day, the games are easy to us.”

The Holy Cross lead lasted a mere three minutes and 27 seconds. Cheek got the Crimson on the board with an unassisted goal to keep his hot streak going. Neither team could break the deadlock despite a flurry of Crusader shots and a penalty against Holy Cross senior midfielder Marc Buermann. Freshman Nigel Andrews gave Harvard its second goal of the afternoon to provide a lead that the Crimson would not relinquish for the rest of the contest. It was the first career goal for Andrews, a first-year midfielder from New York City who prepped at Deerfield Academy.

Andrews was not the only Harvard freshman to get in on the Crimson’s offensive onslaught. After his team controlled the ball for most of the time immediately following its second goal, first-year defenseman David Strupp gave Harvard some insurance before the teams switched sides following the first intermission. It was the second goal in as many games for Strupp as senior defenseman Ryan Norton chipped in an assist. Andrews lit the lamp again in the fourth quarter while classmate Dalton Follows tickled the twine in the second. All told, the Crimson’s freshmen combined for four goals and an assist on the afternoon.

“I think we have a lot of young guys and new faces and that’s been awesome,” Coleman said. “I think they’ve been playing awesome across the board. It’s just good for them to get experience early on in the season.”

The Crusaders would cut the deficit to one goal three more times on the afternoon but could never break through to get an equalizer. Senior attacker Jack Ortlieb scored late in the second but Follows’ goal came just 91 seconds later to put the lead back at two. Senior attacker Kevin Lux got the hosts back to within one but Cheek was the one to rain on the parade this time. Hoping that the third time would prove to be the charm, Lux took matters into his own hands, scoring an unassisted goal to take Holy Cross into halftime trailing by a single goal.

“The most positive takeaway was...not getting too high when we had good moments and not getting too low when we had bad moments,” Ryan said. “We kept a pretty even keel throughout the game but certainly a lot to work on going forward.”

Juniors Joe Lang and Coleman scored within ten seconds of one another to put the Harvard lead at three while Coleman’s second goal of the afternoon, which came just 80 seconds after his first tally, put the Crusaders behind by four. Throughout the early second half and into the fourth quarter, the Crimson remained in the driver’s seat, scoring four of the next five goals to push its lead to seven at 12-5. Penalties down the stretch allowed Holy Cross to muster some rhythm on offense and score the game’s final four goals. Harvard took four penalties on the afternoon, something it has done in both contests over the last week.

“Our intensity level was pretty high throughout the game,” Ryan said. “Our execution wasn’t quite there, certainly a lot of things we want to improve on that we will have to improve on to get wins going forward.”

—Staff writer Stephen J. Gleason can be reached at stephen.gleason@thecrimson.com.