Crimson Down UMass Laxmen, 8-7; Pendergast Stops Minutemen in Fourth

Harvard's on-again, off-again men's lacrosse team was both on and off in the course of yesterday's game against UMass, one of New England's toughest teams.

First it was in the "off" mode, going scoreless for the first 16:32. Later the Crimson reversed that, keeping the Minutemen off the scoreboard during a 19:16 stretch. And then it was Harvard's turn again, as it hit a 15:06 dry spell.

Somehow it added up in the Crimson's favor, giving it an 8-7 victory by the time it left the Business School field.

One number that came out in UMass's favor--by a 53-54 margin was the ground balls total, generally considered the most crucial stat in lacrosse games besides the score.

"It really is unusual," Crimson Coach Bob Scalise said of his squad's winning despite scooping up fewer loose balls. Harvard emerged with its one-goal triumph for one simple reason, he said. "Our goalie is an unbelievable goalie."

Senior Tim Pendergast's exploits in the Crimson nets stood out all the more since they were at their most spectacular in the final quarter, which started with the score tied at six. For a while UMass goalie Gerald Moreau matched Pendergast save for save.

Forgery

But with the home team forging ahead on two mid-period goals, it was Pendergast who proved to be the difference. After robbing UMass's Tim Cutler at the 4 00 mark, he twice frustrated midfielder Rich Messina Near the 7 00 mark. Messina had the chance to wind up and blast away from 15 feet out, but Pendergast stopped him, as he did five minutes later on a hard, low 20-footer that would have tied the score at eight. And with the Minutemen pressing in the late going, the 6-ft., 4 in co captain leapt way up to intercept an errant shot that was sailing over the goal, enabling his teammates to kill off the final 1:20.

Pendergast's efforts capped off a seesaw struggle in which each team had threatened at least once to turn the game into a rout. The visitors held a 2-0 edge at the end of the first quarter, and a 3-1 lead midway through the second--but it was only their consistently wide shooting that kept the score from being more one-sided.

But from midway through the second to midway through the third period, the Crimson held control, scoring five unanswered goals. Freshman Chris Pujols started the streak, as the tail end of fast-break started by attackman Peter Follows, and provided the go-ahead goal with 1:25 left in the half, pouncing on the rebound of a previous shot and scoring.

Follows made it 6-3 at 6:31 into the third, unleashing his 20-ft. shot just as two Minutemen converged on him.

But in a 2:15 span, three UMass goals knotted it up once more. Midfielder Chris Schmitz accounted for two of the tallies, as the fourth quarter loomed as a 15:00 mini-game.

Big Mo

The final momentum shift came 6:37 into the final period, when, after Harvard had controlled the ball for a minute-and-a-half, Steve Bartenfelder grabbed a ground ball in front of the UMass net and drove it just inside the far corner. With Harvard a man up after UMass's Brad Broadwell took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, Co-Captain Brendan Meagher scored his second from the game, making it 8-6.

UMass closed the gap to one with 4:19 left, but couldn't beat Pendergast again in the waning minutes.

THE NOTEBOOK: The win raised Harvard's record to 4-6...The Crimson will head south to take on Rutgers on Saturday...Sophomore Tom Lochtefeld put Harvard on the scoreboard in the second quarter with his first goal of the season.