Laxmen Stumble in Season Finale, 12-7

In a sense, the Harvard men's lacrosse team spent its whole season trying to catch up.

It started its season with losses to its two toughest opponents, and won once before falling to 1-5. At the end of April, the Crimson squandered a chance to pull within a game of 500. But two wins later, it was headed for its season finale with one last chance to even up its record.

Saturday afternoon at Dartmouth. Harvard fell way behind in the first half and fell short with a modest second-half rally. The Big Green sent the visitors home with a 12-7 loss and a final season record of 6-8. The Crimson, tied for second in the Ivies last year, finished 1-5 in league play this year, in next-to-last place.

After finally breaking the 10-goal mark in last weekend's game against Adelphi, the offense stumbled again. The attack was perhaps too balanced--seven different players scored, with none of the big guns connecting twice. As soon as Dartmouth headed for double digits, it was all over.

Big Flood

The Big Green deluge held off for a little more than one period of play. The hosts led, 2-1, after the first quarter and made it 3-1 early in the second before Harvard pulled within one, on a goal by junior midfielder Jamie Wright.

But then Dartmouth blew the game open with six unanswered goals before halftime. "They were getting good shots from the crease," said one of the harried Crimson defensemen, Brian Edmonds. "It's tough to stop it," he said of the growing Big Green momentum, "even with a timeout"--which Coach Bob Scalise called, to no avail.

Harvard faced a 9-2 deficit at the half, and a slight Crimson edge in the second half wasn't enough. Every time it looked like it might turn into a real contest, Jim Yukica, who played a strong game in the Dartmouth nets, quashed the would-be comebacks.

Outside of the calamitous second-quarter stretch. Tim Pendergast posted a strong performance of his own in his final game in the Crimson goal, finishing with 25 saves.

THE NOTEBOOK: Besides Wright, the goal-scorers for Harvard were Rob Hawley. Peter Follows, Chris Pujols, Tom Corcoran, Steve Bartenfelder and senior Co-Captain Rich Rainaldi...Yukica's father is Dartmouth's head football coach.