The spring season is hardly a month old and the world of men’s lacrosse has already been turned upside down. No. 16 Brown (5-0) pulled out a big upset over No. 10 Loyola to remain undefeated for the season. Meanwhile, in Ivy action, the University of Pennsylvania (4-3, 1-1 Ivy) remained undefeated at Franklin Field after a win over Harvard (3-2, 0-1). Elsewhere, only late game rallies helped higher ranked teams escape their Cinderellas. No. 20 Dartmouth (5-1) came from behind against Fairfield while Princeton (3-2) fell to a furious Syracuse rally.

Penn 7, Harvard 5

The Quakers’ Will Phillips pushed his scoring streak to 25 goals after scoring two of the three Penn goals in the first quarter to help the Quakers break out to an early 3-0 lead, and they never looked back afterwards. With the win Saturday, the Quakers remain undefeated on its home turf.

Penn midfielder Zandy Reich scored the other Quakers’ third first quarter goal to aid his squad to the early three-point lead. With only six seconds remaining in the opening quarter, Harvard finally got on the board on a goal by attackman Mike McBride to soften the lead cushion to two points.

Penn opened the second quarter with a goal by attackman Luke Dixon, but the Cantabs responded with two consecutive points from attackmen Greg Cohen and Anders Johnson to close within one at 4-3. Quaker attackman James Riordan snuck in an extra goal with less than 20 seconds before the break to keep the Penn lead at a steady two points.

The third quarter left both teams scoreless, but Penn took control of the fourth with back-to-back goals from attackman P.J. Gilbert and middleman D.J. Andrzejewski within a minute time span to give the Quakers a huge 7-3 lead.

The Crimson took advantage of the time it still had left and responded with two goals of its own. The first goal came from midfielder Evan Calvert on a three-man advantage play with 12:23 remaining.

The Quaker defense then held the Crimson back and ran the clock, leaving only enough time for attackman Sean Kane to score the final Harvard goal in the last 1:10 of the match. But Kane’s goal came too late for the Cantabs.

Harvard finished the game with a 32-26 shot advantage, but just could not get enough shots past Penn goalie Ryan Kelly, who finished with 10 saves.

Brown 14, Loyola 3

Brown came up with a tremendous win over Loyola with the aid of attackman Chazz Woodson, who scored four goals for the Bears Saturday.

The win at Stevenson Field gives Brown its best start since 1991.

Tied at 1-1 midway through the first quarter, Bears goalie Mike Levin made an end-to-end run to pass to Woodson, who then scored to put Brown up in the lead. This goal triggered a 7-0 Brown run that lifted the hosts to an 8-1 lead at the half.

But the Bears did not stop there. After Loyola’s Pat Sheck scored to cut the lead to six, Brown attackman Kyle Walies and midfield Britton Derkac each nailed a goal to move the lead up 10-2.

Sheck scored again, but the Bears answered back two-fold with another pair of goals to make the score 12-3 at the start of the first quarter.

The Greyhounds were scoreless afterwards and the Bears nabbed another pair to finish the game with a 14-3 victory.

Dartmouth 12, Fairfield 9

Dartmouth attackmen Jamie Coffin and Brad Heritage each scored three goals to lead the Big Green’s rally to victory.

Trailing 4-5 at halftime, Dartmouth bounced back into action with a 5-1 run, including two from Coffin, to take a demanding 9-6 lead by the end of the third quarter.

In the fourth segment, the teams exchanged a pair of goals. Fairfield then scored a third goal with 4:30 remaining. But the Bears sealed the win on a goal by midfielder Ben Grinnell with less than three minutes to play.

Both opposing teams were tied 3-3 midway through the second quarter before Fairfield potted two goals to take the lead. Big Green midfielder Russell Radebaugh scored just before the half to put Dartmouth within one.

Big Green goalie Andrew Goldstein finished the day with 12 saves.

Saturday’s win gave Dartmouth a five-game winning streak after losing its first match to Rutgers on February 28.

Syracuse 14, Princeton 12

The deciding victory to this match-up came down to a matter of face-offs.

No. 3 Syracuse dominated the No. 5 Princeton in face-offs winning 21 out of 29.

Princeton had a 7-2 lead near the end of the second quarter before Syracuse mounted its rally. The Orangemen scored the final two goals of the second quarter before outscoring Princeton 10-5 in the second half.

The Tigers led 11-10 in the fourth quarter before Syracuse scored four unanswered goals in a 4:27 time span.

Princeton attackman Ryan Boyle finally answered back, scoring one of his three goals on the day to make the score 12-14. The Tigers gained an extra-man opportunity on the same play, but lost the ensuing face-off to Syracuse with 1:30 left in regulation.

The Tigers were unable to pull off another shot afterwards and had to settle for the loss.