Stickmen Cruise Past Dartmouth, 23-7

The Harvard stickmen wrapped up a splendid season Saturday, rolling past rival Dartmouth with surprising ease, 23-7. The triumph left Harvard with a 10-4 record at season's end, their best since 1971, when the squad won eight of 11, or perhaps since 1964, when the Crimson rolled to a 12-3 finish.

Bob Scalise's charges also garnered Harvard's best record in the 23-year history of the Ivy League, taking five of six loop contests. The Crimson shared the title in the memorable spring of 1964 with a 4-2 showing. This year, Harvard had to settle for second behind Cornell, winner of 40 straight games and the last two national championships.

By notching 23 goals or more for the fourth time this season, the Crimson pushed its season goal total to 224, easily eclipsing the previous school standard of 216, set in a longer season back in 1960.

Harvard put the Big Green away in the early going, racing to an 8-0 advantage by early in the second quarter. With Jeff Hickey heating up for two goals and two assists, Dartmouth finally got going and drew within striking distance at the half, 10-5.

The potent Crimson took complete control of the contest in the second half, shifting the offense into high gear while the defense made life miserable for the Dartmouth attackmen. Harvard stretched the lead to 16-7 after three, then duplicated the first quarter in the fourth, connecting seven times while holding the visitors scoreless.

As in the team's previous game, Tuesday's 29-3 laugher at Williams, most of the excitement was generated by Steve Martin and Mike Faught's pursuit of individual records.

Playing in his last varsity game, Martin burned Dartmouth for eight assists, tying the Crimson single-game record for the second time in three years. He'll graduate with 167 career points, the second best in the school's history behind Grady Watts' awesome 241.

On the Mark

Meanwhile, Faught hit the mark four times, the last with four minutes still left in the game, to tie the school single-season record with 58. Dexter Lewis set the old mark in 1955, playing in two more games than Harvard scheduled this spring.

Martin added a pair of goals to outpoint Faught in this season's scoring race, 75-71. His ten-point effort against the Big Green fell one short of a school record Faught tied earlier in the week against Williams.

While the efforts of the high-scoring attack grabbed much of the attention this year, midfielder Pete Predun was busy collecting 22 goals and 33 assists. That assist total is amazing, since middies spend most of their time cutting toward the goal looking for feeds from the attackmen. Just a sophomore, Predun was one of the highest scoring players at his position in the country.

While he and Faught, a junior, will be back next year to further victimize Harvard opponents, six seniors joined Martin Saturday in playing their last varsity games.

Blossoming

Co-captains Bobby Mellen, with seven goals and three assists, and Hank Leopold (11-13-24) contributed valuable points from midfield, but their leadership was even more important to the predominately young team. Swift Jimmy Ossyra (17-4-21) and Chris "Beast" Doherty (11-3-14) blossomed into potent offensive threats. Reserves Andy Krauner and Dan Kalmerten performed well when called upon.