Aquamen Have Brown Nightmare

"It was absurd, It was just like the Twilight Zone. The referees had no idea: they couldn't figure it out. Their contact with reality was hurting." Brown men's water polo Couch Ed Reed said after his team heat Harvard, 13-10, before 90 fans Sunday in the first round of the New England championships at Blodgett Pool.

Harvard won its first four games--against MIT, 21-5, Columbia, 18-14, Yale, 15-8, and UMass, 13-6. But despite their 4-1 tournament mark the weekend was a disappointing one for the home team. The Crimson is finally talented enough to beat the Bruins and after almost 10 years of consecutive losses is printed for revenge.

Sunday was a disappointment for both teams because horrible officiating turned a potentially great match into a farce. Reed said, "I think it's a shame that under these circumstances the refs were son nervous and intimidated. They couldn't handle the pressure ... I asked one how many time-outs I had left and after a long discussion he confessed that he didn't know. I just threw up my hands and started humming the theme from the Twilight Zone." One Brown player commented. "They [the referees] should have won."

And although Harvard Couch Steve Pike refused to comment about the officiating, his Earl Weaver-like antics during the game indicated that he was equally upset. Pike was, however, pleased with the play of Dave Fasi, Adam Button, Steve Munatones, and goalie Brian Graham. He thought the game, for all its distractions, was no real indication of the teams' relative strengths, except that Brown showed that it does have more depth than the Crimson. He added, "After we took a shot their guards would break for our goal and if the shot was blocked they would be in great position. Twice on defensive counter, attacks we picked up the totally wrong man. Refs didn't do that."

Power Structure

Reed started his second its players in the first quarter to show just how deep the Bruins are. And the subs produced a 3-2 lead. In the second quarter, with the Brown regulars in, the Crimson struck back. Now trailing, 4-2, it reeled off three unanswered goals--a spurt motivated by a brutal foul committed by the Bruins' Steve Ennis. He nailed Graham with a well-aimed kick to the groin and was thrown out.

After Brown retied the game. Dave Fast slapped the bull in off a beautiful feed from the hole with 39 seconds left in the half. But a Harvard penalty moments later allowed Brown to score with just 10 seconds left to the back up.

After an early goal by Mike Rogers after intermission, the rest of the third quarter was a seemingly endless series of Harvard near misses and great saves by Graham at the other end. As well as Graham was playing, the Bruins were able to notch two goals in the period and take a one-goal lead.

And although Harvard retied the game early in the fourth period, Brown soon took control and grabbed an insurmountable 11-8 lead. The Brown win extended their New England winning streak, which dates to 1975 Harvard finished second in the tourney by heating the four other vastly inferior teams Yale came in last, managing only a 5-5 tie with UMass.

THE NOTEBOOK: Graham had 51 saves for the weekend, including an amazing 13 against Brown. Pike praised Graham's hard work and the special instructions of Assistant Coach Peter Landsbury for the goalie's tremendous performance ... Button notched 20 goals in the tourney and Pike called him Harvard's MVP ... Dave Fasi had 16 scores ... Steve Munatones had 11 assists.