by Despite seeing sophomore Tehoka Nanticoke (Mohawk) and senior Sean Eccles reach career milestones, the University at Albany men’s lacrosse team lost to Harvard, 13-12, on Wednesday in a non-conference game at Harvard Stadium.
Nanticoke got his 100th career point when he gave UAlbany a 3-1 lead with a goal late in the first quarter. Eccles, who led the Great Danes six points (five goals), earned his 100th when he scored to tie the score at 4 with 13:26 left in the first half.
But Harvard surged ahead with a four-goal run in the third quarter and held off UAlbany in the fourth to beat the Great Danes for the first time in eight tries.
Mitch Laffin (two), Jakob Patterson (two), Ron John and Alex Burgmaster also scored for UAlbany, and Nate Siekierski stopped 16 shots in the cage.
“Tough loss, but I’m really pleased with our compete level,” said Scott Marr, UAlbany’s head coach. “I thought all around, from our support on the bench to our players believing, we certainly came ready to play. We played hard. We could have used a few less mistakes and fewer turnovers, but a step in the right direction in terms of how hard we played and how prepared we were.”
The game was tied at 5 at the intermission after a back-and-forth first half that saw UAlbany race to a 3-1 lead, only to have Harvard answer with three-goal run. Neither team scored over the final 9:32 of the second quarter.
The Great Danes opened the second-half scoring on an Eccles’ goal, but Harvard’s four-goal run that spanned 6:08 followed, giving the Crimston a 9-6 lead.
UAlbany cut the lead to two goals four separate times: 9-7, 10-8, 11-9, 12-10 and 13-11, before Eccles’ final goal with just six seconds to play.
