Lyle Thompson Leads UAlbany Men's Lacrosse to a 16-7 Win Over Harvard
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. – Behind four goals and four assists from Lyle Thompson, UAlbany returned to its winning form, defeating Harvard, 16-7, on the road in non-conference men's lacrosse action on Tuesday afternoon. With the win, the Great Danes improve to 5-3 on the season, while Harvard drops to 4-4.
The game got out to a quick start, with Lyle Thompson striking first to give the Great Danes an early 1-0 lead with an assist to Jack Nickla. However, Harvard answered with back-to-back goals to take a 2-1 lead before Miles Thompson scored two straight unassisted goals to put UAlbany back on top, 3-2, with just under six minutes to play in the first. The Great Danes took a 4-2 lead late in the first quarter on a second goal by Lyle, this time with an assist from Miles, with just over a minute and a half to go.
Lyle Thompson started the scoring in the second quarter as well, netting the first goal of the period at 13:36, to put UAlbany up, 5-2, on the Crimson. Nickla got in on the goal-scoring action less than a minute later with an unassisted shot to push the Great Dane lead to 6-2, and prompt Harvard to take a timeout. UAlbany didn't slow down, getting a tally by Ty Thompson, with an assist to Lyle, at 11:33. Harvard got back in the scoring column with just under nine minutes to play on a goal from Murphy Vandervelde. The Great Danes would add one more in the first half, as Tim Cox took an assist from Will Fuller to beat the 30-second clock, setting the halftime score at 8-3.
UAlbany scored again quickly to start the third, getting an unassisted goal by Will Fuller at 13:17. The Great Danes capitalized on a man-up opportunity at 7:35, as Ty Thompson scored his second of the day. Harvard responded at 5:31, on an extra-man opportunity of its own, with a goal by Alex White. The Crimson struck again at 4:09 to cut their deficit to five goals, but UAlbany answered with a tally by Matt Garziano, assisted by the nation's leader in helpers – Lyle Thompson. He added another assist to his totals less than a minute later, passing off to his brother at 2:46 on a man-up opportunity to push the UAlbany lead to 12-5.
Three minutes into play in the fourth quarter, freshman John Maloney got on the board with a man-up goal, taking an assist from Lyle Thompson. Harvard responded just over a minute later with another goal from Vandervelde, also on an extra-man opportunity. However, Lyle scored his fourth goal of the day off an assist from Eric Cantor to hold onto a 14-6 lead with just under ten minutes to play. Harvard got a score from Harry Krieger at 6:50, but Maloney took an assist from Dwayne Stewart three minutes later to continue to hold a 10-goal advantage. The Crimson would not give up, as Brendan Newman tallied an unassisted shot at 3:47 to cut the UAlbany lead back to single digits, and that score would hold for the remainder of regulation.
UAlbany outshot Harvard, 42-33, including a 28-13 advantage in shots on goal. The Great Danes also held a 31-22 advantage in ground balls, while the Crimson won 14-of-27 faceoffs. UAlbany goalkeeper Blaze Riorden played all 60 minutes in net for the Great Danes, making six saves, while Harvard got 11 saves from Krieger in just under 53 minutes of play. Jake Gambitsky played the final 7:11 between the pipes for the Crimson, stopping one shot.
UAlbany will return to action on Saturday, visiting Binghamton to open up America East Conference play at 3 p.m.
