The scene outside Harvard Stadium before the Harvard-Duke lacrosse game was something that Crimson lacrosse hasn’t seen in years.
Free food, tailgating, and thousands of UC-purchased shirts littered the outskirts of the field, all part of an effort to act on the hype that had surrounded this matchup since Harvard upset the Blue Devils in its 2009 season opener, 9-6.
While the Crimson was enjoying the sensation surrounding the pregame festivities, Duke was all business, all night.
The Blue Devils scored five goals in less than five minutes to open the contest, making sure the game was over before those lingering fans who went back for seconds at the Redbones booth even found a place to sit. Duke added three more goals before the first quarter ended, leaving a Harvard crowd of more than 13,000 in shock that the Blue Devils had more goals—eight—than the Crimson had shots—five—in the first quarter alone.
The first quarter was all she wrote for Harvard as Duke would dominate ball control throughout the night en route to a 14-5 final tally.
[Duke’s] execution was great, and they came out ready to play,” Crimson coach John Tillman said. “I didn’t want us to play the scoreboard, and I think our guys really came together and rallied around the fact that it wasn’t going well, which is a good sign for the future.”
Despite the Blue Devil’s dominating first quarter, Harvard refused to cave in and simply hand over an easy victory. After Freshman Peter Schwartz rifled one past Duke’s Dan Wigrizer for the first goal of his career, junior Dean Gibbons spun right around defenseman Jason Orlando and bounced one right into the bottom left corner of the goal to bring the deficit to 9-2.
Flashes of the Crimson’s incredible comeback from six down against Dartmouth last weekend were smothered when the Blue Devils scored the next three goals to take a 12-2 lead. Sophomore Jeff Cohen found co-captain Travis Burr from behind the net for an easy goal to give Harvard a little bit of momentum heading into halftime down 12-3.
Duke was in complete command of the second half, content to work the ball slowly and rely on its defense to prevent the Crimson from developing any momentum.
“The most important thing for us right now is to keep coaching our guys, keep trying to make them better and making sure they know we improve as a team,” Tillman said. “I know they’ll stay together, and I’m sure we’ll come out ready to play much better next week.”
