Big Red Destroys Overmatched Crimson Stickmen, 21-7; Passing by All-American Attack Key to Cornell's Offense

There is only one thing worse than having to play the second-ranked team in the country: having to play the top-ranked team. Yesterday morning, only hours before the Harvard-Cornell lacrosse game, The Boston Globe ran its weekly lacrosse poll. On the strength of last week's 15-7 destruction of Johns Hopkins, the Big Red of Cornell had finally passed Maryland into the number-one sopt.

Surely, Cornell is eager to retain that distinction, and the best way to do that is to clobber everyone in sight. And that is exactly what the Big Red came determined to do yesterday afternoon at the Business School Field, as the team demolished the Crimson, 21-7.

The goals came in bunches in the first period and for a while it looked like Harvard might hold its own. After Cornell took a 2-0 lead, Bill MacKenzie scored on a long pass from Andy Krouner to get the Crimson started.

Cornell came right back with a tally by Mike French, the leading scorer in the nation last year, but Billy Tennis notched another for Harvard. The Big Red machine cranked out another score, but Tennis face dodged his way to the crease and connected again to pull the Crimson close, 4-3.

The visitors fired in another quick pair to build their lead, but freshman midfielder Bill Forbush scored and Harvard was still very much in the game, 6-4.

But all this soon changed. Cornell's swift midfielders kept the ball in their offensive end, and the all-American attack trio of French, Eamon McEneaney, and Jon Levine just passed Harvard to death. The fact that the Crimson got outshot, 64-22, despite winning 17 of the 32 faceoffs, attests to Cornell's ability to pass the ball and create scoring opportunities.

By late in the second period, the Big Red had reeled off nine straight goals to put the game away, 15-4. At that point, Cornell coach Richie Moran started to substitute freely on attack. The visitors failed to break their own Ivy League record for goals (26), but they had made their point.

Harvard notched the game's next three scores with MacKenzie, Tennis, and co-captain Kevin McCall getting the goals. That was all for the Crimson, though, and Cornell built toward the 21-7 final in the last, meaningless minutes.

The Big Red offense was again carried by the superb attackmen. French had five goals and three assists for the day, setting a new Ivy League career scoring record in the process. Last year the all-American performer led the nation with 97 points.

Not to Be Outdone

McEneaney chipped in with three goals and five assists, setting a new Cornell career assist record in the second quarter. Only a junior, he will be around for another season and a half. Last year, he finished only a point behind French in the scoring race with 96, and was named the Ivy League's "Player of the Year."

Levine was lost in the shuffle last year, but his 69 points were 27 more than any Harvard player scored. yesterday, he contributed five goals.

Billy Tennis had four points to lead the Crimson, raising his team-leading total to 30 on 20 goals and 10 assists.