Men’s lacrosse falls short in back and forth battle with Harvard

The Boston University men’s lacrosse team had one last chance to tie the game with 47 seconds left in the regulation, but was unable to find the back of the net and fell to Harvard University, 9-8, Tuesday night at Nickerson Field.

This loss was the third straight for the Terriers (6-5, 3-3 Patriot League), who came into the game off a 17-8 defeat to the United States Military Academy on Saturday.

“I’m proud of my guys and the way that they played,” said BU coach Ryan Polley. “At the end, they [Harvard] just made one more play than us.”

The Terriers were led on offense by sophomore attack Adam Schaal, who scored three goals on three shots. Freshman attack Ryan Hilburn, who leads BU in points, added two goals and an assist. Sophomore goalie Christian Carson-Banister, who played in his first game since recovering from an arm injury, collected 15 saves and kept the Terriers in the game.

“I thought he was excellent,” Polley said. “He made some brilliant saves. It’s obviously great to have him back. I thought he played great tonight.”

The game was truly a back-and-forth game, as neither the Terriers nor the Crimson (6-5) ever led by more than two. The Terriers got on the board first, as freshman midfielder Greg Farris scored unassisted in the first minute of the opening frame. BU was able to stretch the advantage to two when Harvard scored three straight to take the lead.

The Terriers would soon respond, with Schaal and sophomore faceoff specialist Sam Talkow scoring in a span of 21 seconds to put BU up one again. The teams continued to swap leads, and the game was tied heading into the fourth quarter.

After his team struggled to maintain possession in its last two contests, Polley said he was pleased with the amount of turnovers committed by the Terriers Tuesday night.

“For a midweek game, I thought it was pretty clean,” Polley said. “Both teams cleared the ball really well, which I was pleased with on our side, as the turnovers were down.”

That play took place with 2:05 left in the game, as Harvard attacker Devin Dwyer scored his third goal of the game to give the Crimson a one-goal lead. The Terriers were able to call a timeout with 16 seconds left and work out a gameplan.

“We wanted to attack their short stick up top,” Polley said. “They were in a zone, and we wanted to make them rotate, which we did.”

The Terriers were able to get two shots off in the final two seconds, but both missed the target and Harvard was able to emerge victorious.

“We got a great shot, but we just missed it,” Polley said. “Got another shot with a second and a half to go, and just missed that one too. It happens. I thought we executed well, just sometimes you don’t make your shots.”