Box Score
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – In its regular season finale, the No. 8/9 Yale University men's lacrosse team scored six second half goals but ran out of time at arch rival Harvard. The 8-7 setback cost the Bulldogs a share of the regular season Ivy League championship.
Conrad Oberbeck (Greenwich, Conn.) led Yale (9-4, 3-3 Ivy) with five points, one goal, four assists. to move into a tie with Matt Gibson, '12 for fourth place on the career scoring chart. The Senior CLASS Award finalist currently has 172 career points. Jeff Cimbalista (New Hope, Pa.) added four points, three goals and one assist for the Bulldogs.
Harvard (7-7, 2-4 Ivy) received two goals each from freshmen Tim Edmonds (Fairfield, Conn.) and Morgan Cheek (Wellesley, Mass.).
The Crimson opened the scoring 10:16 into the Ivy League contest. Edmonds sent home a Devin Dwyer (Garden City, N.Y.) feed for the lone goal of the first period.
Harvard added to its lead with two goals in the opening minute of the second quarter. Off the face-off, Sean Mahon (Garden City, N.Y.) scored unassisted. Joe Lang (Mill Valley, Calif.) followed up with an unassisted goal 45 seconds later.
Cimbalista got the Bulldogs on the scoreboard at the 1:44 mark. Oberbeck, a Tewaaraton Award nominee, had the helper.
The Crimson responded with two goals in less than a minute to take a 5-1 lead with 12:14 left in the first half. J.T. Palladino (Basking Ridge, N.J.) and Cheek scored for the hosts.
At the break, the Bulldogs were down 5-1 and being outshot 17-14. On face-offs, Yale was only two-of-eight in the opening 30 minutes.
On the visitor's first possession of the second half, Oberbeck scored his team-leading 34th goal of the season unassisted.
Cimbalista continued the Yale momentum with his second of the afternoon at the 5:38 mark. Oberbeck again had the helper.
Edmonds scored again to break the Bulldogs' run with 3:29 remaining in the third.
Brian Pratt (Garden City, N.Y.) grounded one past Harvard goalie Jake Gambitsky (Wantagh, N.Y.) at the 13:10 mark to get the deficit back to two. The first career goal by the sophomore midfielder closed the third period scoring.
Cheek fired home his second of the day 53 seconds in to open the fourth quarter scoring.
James Tjarksen (Hartland, Wisc.) fired home a Cimbalista dish at the 3:44 mark to cut the Crimson lead back to a pair.
With 9:37 left, Cimbalista finished off some quick Eli passing for his 26th goal of the season. Oberbeck had the assist as the sophomore completed the hat trick.
Harvard got an important goal at the 6:30 mark. Will Walker (Hingham, Mass.) one-timed an Ian Ardey (Greenwich, Conn.) pass for his 18th goal of the season.
With Yale pushing hard for goals late, Gambitsky was up to the challenge on his Senior Day. When the blue and white did beat the senior, their shots were off the mark or hitting pipe.
Mark Glicini (Mahwah, N.J.) scored with help from Oberbeck to cut the lead to one with 13 seconds remaining.
From there, Yale fired off the mark as time ran down.
Eric Natale (Westminster, Md.) (9-4) made 11 saves for Yale, while Gambitsky made 13 saves to earn his first victory of the season.
The Bulldogs will play at No. 10/11 Brown (12-3, 4-2 Ivy) in the Ivy League Tournament Semifinal on May 1 at 8:00 p.m.
Notes:
- Despite being outshot 38-29, the Crimson ran their record to 5-0 when allowing less than 10 goals this season.
- After a rough first half, Jonathan Reese (West Islip, N.Y.) won seven of the 11 face-offs after intermission.
- The last six Yale-Harvard contests have been decided by 10 goals.
Filed by Kyle Young, Yale Sports Publicity
kyle.young@yale.edu
