PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The No. 14 Harvard Crimson walked onto Yurack field in front of a packed crowd and put up a fight against the sixth-seeded Rutgers Scarlet Knights, eventually falling in the contest, 19-9.
 
Austin Madronic, Owen Gaffney and Sam King all notched three points and Kyle Mullin saved 13 shots to highlight the Crimson effort.
 
Harvard was able to hold off Rutgers early in the matchup, blocking the first two shots taken by the Scarlet Knights. The home team broke through the Crimson defense to find the back of the net to open the scoring. Rutgers rattled off two more goals to take a 3-0 lead, five minutes into the action.
 
Gaffney, the first-year, ended the Rutgers run with a goal at 8:23, putting Harvard on the scoreboard.
 
Starting goalkeeper, Kyle Mullin was stout in the first 15 minutes, saving three shots in the opening quarter to keep the score at 4-1 at the end of the first 15.
 
Rutgers put a pair of tallies on the board to open the second quarter, boosting its lead to 6-1.
 
The Crimson did not shy away, as the team rushed to go on a 4-1 run in the final six minutes of the second quarter. King started the rally with Andrew Perry, Owen Gaffney and Hayden Cheek following suit to make the score 7-5 going into the halftime break.
 
Andrew O'Berry wrote his name on the scoresheet early in the second half with a goal to put the score at 6-8. The Scarlet Knights answered back with another run to make the score 13-7 at the end of the third quarter.  
 
Senior Austin Madronic stopped the run with his first goal of the game with just under two minutes left in the quarter. The British Columbia native scored again early in the fourth quarter, threading a beautiful behind-the-back shot over the shoulder of the goalie and into the back of the net. Madronic's goal made the score 13-8 with 11:48 to go in regulation.
 
Perry hit nylon again late in the fourth quarter, scoring what would be the last goal in the game.
 
GAME NOTES

• Senior Austin Madronic paced the offense with three points on two goals and one assist.
• Kyle Mullin made 13 saves in net in his final game with the Crimson
• Harvard put 26 shots on net in the contest
• Colin Bergstrom led the defense for the Crimson with two caused turnovers.
• Chase Yager tallied a team-high six groundballs.