#18 Brown’s Second Half Surge Overwhelms #10 Harvard, 14-9

#18 Brown’s Second Half Surge Overwhelms #10 Harvard, 14-9

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Providence, R.I. – Trailing by a goal at halftime, 18th-ranked Brown outscored #10 Harvard by a 9-3 margin in the second half to surge to a 14-9 win over the Crimson in the Ivy League opener for both teams at soggy Stevenson Field.

Brown remains unbeaten with the win, extending its record to 5-0 overall, 1-0 in the Ivy League, while Harvard falls to 4-2 overall, 0-1 in Ivy play.

Brown sophomore attackman Dylan Molloy (Setauket, NY), the nation’s leading scorer, paced the Bears with three goals and two assists, while juniors Brendan Caputo (Westbury, NY), Kylor Bellistri (Potomac, MD) and Matt Graham (Amityville, NY) added two goals each.

The difference in the game was the play of Bears’ sophomore long stick Larken Kemp (Greenwich, CT), who wrecked havoc with the Harvard attack. Kemp caused eight turnovers, pickled up four ground balls and scored a fourth-quarter goal to put the icing on the cake.

Bears’ junior goalie Jack Kelly (West Islip, NY) struggled in the first half, but responded with six second half saves, nine saves overall, including a key stop with Brown down two men and Harvard trailing 10-8 with five minutes to play.

Brown out-shot the Crimson by a 53-31 margin, and held a 48-26 margin in ground balls.

Junior face-off specialist Will Gural (Haverford, PA) also stepped up his game in the second half. Gural captured 16-of-25 face-offs overall, including 8-of-9 in the fourth quarter.

The Crimson was led by freshman Joe Lang, who netted three goals and earned two assists, while junior Deke Burns scored two goals. Harvard goalie Bryan Moore made 17 saves.

Harvard led, 6-4, on an unassisted goal by Lang with 3:10 left in the second quarter. A late goal by Brown’s Bellistri cut the Crimson lead to 6-5 at the half.

Graham scored for the Bears early in the third quarter to tie the game, 6-6, but Ian Ardrey scored an unassisted goal for the Crimson to go back up, 7-6, at the 8:45 mark of the third quarter.

Blynn ignited a 4-0 Brown spurt to take control of the game, tying the game, 7-7, one minute later. Molloy scored on a pass from senior Nick Piroli (Black River, NY) to give Brown the lead for good, 8-7.

Neither team led by more than two goals until Bears long stick freshman Jake Miller gave Brown a 10-7 lead with 13:42 remaining in the game.

A goal by Harvard’s Sean Coleman drew the Crimson to within two goals of the Bears, at the 7:06 mark of the fourth quarter.

With the Bears down two men, Caputo split two defenders in the attacking zone and beat Harvard’s Moore with 4:11 left to play to give the Bears control of the game once again, 11-8. Kemp and Molloy scored to lift the Bears to a 13-8 lead with just 2:11 left on the clock.

Brown is back in action again on Tuesday, March 17, hosting Bucknell at Stevenson, starting at 4 pm.

Tickets for all Brown lacrosse games can be purchased online, calling the Brown Athletics Ticket Office at (401) 863-2773, or walking up to the Box Office located in the Pizzitola Sports Center, open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
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