M. LACROSSE | An 8–6 win against Lehigh on Saturday kept the Yale men’s lacrosse team undefeated through its first four weekends of competition.

The Bulldogs (4–0, 0–0 Ivy) will ride that wave of positive momentum into next Saturday, when they open Ivy League play on the road against No. 8 Cornell.

“Starting off the season 4-0 is great,” attacker and captain Brendan Gibson ’10 said. “It gives the team some confidence coming into Ivy League play.”

The Mountain Hawks (2–4, 0–1 Patriot League) scored first in Saturday’s contest to take a 1–0 lead after the opening faceoff. But midfielder Gregory Mahony ’12 equalized with a goal, and then added another one to put Yale on top. Attacker Brian Douglass ’11 and Gibson also recorded a goal apiece and the Elis led 4–2 heading into halftime.

While Lehigh struck first after the halftime restart, another pair of goals by Gibson and Douglass kept Yale ahead, 6–3.

But then the home team rallied. The Mountain Hawks scored three consecutive goals to even things up, 6–6, with 7:58 remaining in the fourth quarter.

That’s when Mahony came up big. The sophomore shattered the tie with 6:44 left on the clock, and then added another goal to give the Elis a two-point advantage three minutes later.

“Greg was awesome,” head coach Andy Shay said. “We needed four big goals and he came up with them.”

Shay said Mahony was one of several athletes to step up during the day, noting that Douglass and Gibson each tallied two goals. Douglass now leads the team with 10 goals. The defense also performed well in six-on-six scenarios, Shay said, but struggled with clearing.

Still, the Bulldogs hung on to their lead for the last three minutes of the game to record the 8–6 win.

“I liked how the team reacted,” Gibson said. “Our actions were similar to how we responded in the UMass game when they surged late. We kept our heads and executed our game plans, which is how you win games like UMass and [Lehigh] — you stick to what you do well.”

The Bulldogs will look to continue that execution when they take on Cornell at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, N.Y., at 1 p.m. next Saturday. The Big Red are 4–1 after most recently falling to No. 1 Virginia, 12–4.

“We are trying not to concentrate on anything but the game in front of us,” Shay said. “Cornell is the biggest game on our schedule of big games.”