NEW HAVEN, Conn. – In one of the best collegiate lacrosse games of the season, the Yale Bulldogs earned a comeback, overtime victory against Harvard on Senior Day, 17-16, which earned the Elis a share of the 2022 Ivy League Championship and a berth into the Ivy Tournament next weekend at Brown.
 
It equated to a heavyweight title fight as both teams traded runs of goals as the No. 6/9 Bulldogs (10-3, 4-2 Ivy) and No. 15/12 Crimson (8-4, 3-3 Ivy) seemingly had answers each time. The Bulldogs were down by a goal with under two minutes remaining in regulation, but rookie Leo Johnson used a spinning shot to tie it up and set up Yale's extra-time heroics.
 
Junior Thomas Bragg, who entered the game leading the nation with 10 man-up goals, made it a hat trick up of extra-man scores as he buried a rip from the top of the zone to give the Bulldogs their first Ivy title since the 2018 season.  
 
"It was a tough game and I give Harvard a lot of credit. It was a good, hard-fought win," said Andy Shay, Forst Family Head Coach of Men's Lacrosse. "It feels like forever since we have won an Ivy Championship – 2018 was a long time ago – and it's exciting and we will never take that for granted."
 
It was junior Tewaaraton candidate Matt Brandau who led the way with a game-high six points. The attackman continues to lead the nation with 6.46 points per game and has just 18 turnovers on the season.
 
Yale's junior scoring punch of Brandau & Bragg was aided by rookie Chris Lyons who netted five goals in the regular-season finale. Lyons now has at least a hat trick in seven of nine collegiate games played, has scored at least two in eight of those contests and totaled 28 goals in only eight starts.
 
It was the Crimson who led by one after the first quarter, 4-3, but Yale stormed back with a 6-3 second stanza to take a 9-7 lead into the break. Harvard had the counter-punch in the third to make it a tie game entering the final 15 in regulation.
 
The Crimson struck first in the fourth with two goals in the initial 1:16 and maintained a two-goal advantage over the next five minutes.
 
The Bulldogs got a big play from sophomore faceoff man Nicholas Ramsey with nine minutes left as he won the battle (he took 21-of-33 on the day), scooped the groundball (he tied a career-high with 16) and beat the defense down to score and make it a one-goal for the remainder.
 
Lyons followed Ramsey with a game-tying score just 50 seconds later and though Harvard did go back up with 4:35 to go, the Bulldogs remained poised to set up Johnson's clutch score with 1:14 left. Johnson finished the day with four points on two goals and two assists. 
 
Not to be outdone by his fellow rookies, Brad Sharp had a career-best performance with five points and four assists. Senior captain Brian Tevlin continued to make an impact in the midfield with four groundballs and two caused turnovers while sophomore Jared Paquette improved to 10-3 for Yale with 12 saves.
 
The Bulldogs now head to Providence, R.I., as the No. 3 seed in the Ivy League Tournament and play No. 2 Cornell on Friday, May 6, at 6 p.m.