Stickmen Triumph In Upset Victory At Princeton, 10-8

PRINCETON, N.J.--On Princeton's Finney Field Saturday, the Crimson lacrosse team played its best game of the season in springing to a 3-0 lead, never trailing despite a nightmarish fourth quarter, and ultimately secured a 10-8 upset triumph over the Bengals.

The Tiger offense never really clicked, as its big, mobile midfield didn't wake up till the second half. Furthermore, Harvard goalie Brian Everist, playing a brilliant game, frustrated most forays towards the crease by Jim Shea, Jon Pettit and Bill Chaires, Princeton's highly-touted attackman. Defensemen Charlie Kittredge and Carter McDowell also played fine games.

Harvard jumped to an early 3-0 lead. First, attackman John Hagerty, who scored four times, picked up a loose ball at 2:30 and fired it in.

A minute later, middy Bob Frisbie got the first of three on a bounce shot from near the restraining line.

At 5:46, attackman Steve Milliken was the next to foil goalie Bill Cronin, with a high, unscreened bounce shot.

But the Bengals rebounded with two solo efforts by Pettit within one minute. With a minute and a half left in the quarter, Chaires tied it at 3-3 on a bounce shot from the right side.

But Frisbie put the Crimson ahead with 54 seconds left, on another long, soft bounce shot.

The Crimson stretched the lead to 6-3 early in the second period, as Hagerty and Frisbie continued their attack. Kittredge, on a virtuoso clear, hit "Hags" near the crease, and the captain sidestepped two defenders and backhanded it in. Frisbie added another goal at 4:06.

Chaires retaliated with an extra-man tally, but middy Andy Anderson, playing a fine, scrappy game, took a feed on the crease from Milliken, and bounced a high but limp shot in.

However, the third quarter opened with Cronin, the hotdog goalie who was more effective on clears than in the nets, showboating upfield and scoring to make it 7-5.

Hagerty retained the three-point cushion off a clear. Working his man toward the crease, he took a difficult-angle shot into the right corner of the net.

Five minutes later, Hagerty was at midfield, and working hapless Keith Stock, spiked a hard shot into the right side of the net. Attackman Jim Quinn, speeding up from behind the goal, popped it in at 10:31 to make it 10-5.

But the Bengal midfield mettle began to show in the fourth quarter. In return, the Crimson corps of Garth Ballantyne, John Flood, Rick Carey, Al Costello, Frisbie, Anderson, and Tom Johnsen, played its most brutal period of the season, totalling Tigers and gobbling ground balls.

The Bengal attack did its mostest, as catty Bill Chaires popped in one, though, as Pettit fed middie Phil Hooper, and as Pettit scored unassisted, to close the gap to 10-8 with five minutes to go.

But there it stayed. Although the momentum was obviously Princeton's, Harvard stalled when it had the ball to stave off the final splurge.