PHILADELPHIA, PA. 4/12/2014 – The University of Pennsylvania Men’s lacrosse team was trialing the Harvard Crimson by two goals late in the game. The Red and Blue have shown themselves to be a resilient team all season. It showed again as Penn got the game-tying goal on a man-up situation from senior midfielder Drew Belinsky with 13 seconds left in regulation. In overtime freshman attack Kevin Brown completed the comeback with a goal at the 2:38 mark to give #11 Penn an 8 – 7 win over #17 Harvard at Franklin Field on Senior Day.
“We’ve been doing this all season,” said Belinsky about the resiliency of the team. “We would have liked to have been ahead early, but we’re used to it. We have a lot of heart and we are never out of the fight. That’s our motto.”
Harvard came into the game undefeated in Ivy League play. Penn needed the win to stay in contention for a conference playoff spot.
“We’re not going to stop here, we’re going to take it to Dartmouth and continue throughout the regular season,” said Brown. “We’re hoping to make the Ivy League tournament and this is a great game to build on with the momentum we have.”
“We want our own fate and if we lost this game we would have to depend on others to win or lose. So now that we have a win under our belt, if we beat Dartmouth we can make the tournament.”
The momentum was on the side of the Crimson who seemed to carry the play. Harvard had a 36 – 27 advantage in shots, 13 – 5 edge in faceoffs won, and a 35 – 22 lead in ground balls. The visitors took a 7 – 5 lead on Carl Zimmerman’s second goal of the game with 8:19 to play. Penn got a proximity goal from senior midfielder Zack Losco, his second, with just over 4 minutes to play.
The Crimson got possession at the 2 minute mark, and were poised to run the clock. However, a turnover with 40 seconds left gave Penn a chance. At the 19 second mark the Quakers went a man-up as Sean McMahon of Harvard was given a 30 second offside penalty that resulted in the unassisted goal by Belinsky six seconds later.
Penn lost the faceoff to start the overtime, but got the ball back off a turnover that set up the winner by Brown, his 12th of the season, assisted Losco.
The Red and Blue improve to 6 – 3 on the season and are 3 – 2 in the Ancient Eight. Penn will stay no worse than tied for third on conference. Harvard suffered their first league loss and stand at 3 – 1 in conference. With the late game heroics Mike Murphy believes his Quakers can be rewarded for finding ways to win.
“We have some issues to clean up, but this can be a springboard towards
something nice in May,” said Murphy.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
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