The Song Remains the Same: Scoring Plagues Crimson in 1-0 Loss

"It's not like we're not generating any offense, because we are." Harvard Field Hockey Coach Edie Mabrey

But it's not like the Harvard field hockey squad's generating many goals, because it's not.

Not even two halves and an overtime were enough for the stickwomen to find their way onto the scoreboard again yesterday, as Northeastern blanked a struggling Harvard squad, 1-0, at Parsons Field.

The shutout of the young Crimson team--the second in four games--came despite the dominating play of the ever-improving offense. But squandered shots and missed opportunities kept the Cantabs locked in a scoreless tie as regulation time expired. Only a Harvard defensive letdown with just 1:50 left in overtime--which resulted in a Northeastern goal--kept the game from entering a second overtime and kept the Crimson from a possible scoring shot.

The disappointing last-minute loss dropped Harvard's record to 1-3 and left the Crimson searching for answers to its early-season scoring woes. Northeastern, meanwhile, raised its mark to 5-3.

"Maybe it's just that we don't believe in ourselves, that we just don't believe we can score," said the Crimson's Captain Ellen O'Neill, who like her teammates found it difficult to accept yesterday's frustrating loss.

What makes it so hard to believe that the Crimson is having trouble scoring, however, is the fact that it is having no trouble controlling almost each game it has played. Despite a modified playing style adapted yesterday for the astroturf of the field, the stickwomen once again outshot, outhustled and completely outplayed the host Huskies.

But while field hockey is anything but a high scoring game, the Crimson's 75 goals-per-game average won't cut it in the game's low-scoring society.

"We played well again," Mabrey said yesterday. "We had our attack, we forced penalty corners and we had shots on goal: we just made a couple of mistakes."

Those mistakes didn't show up until late in the game, though, as Harvard kept the pressure on the Northeastern defense for the entire first and a great part of the second. With the talented Crimson defense--led by senior Beth Mullen--keeping the ball out of the Harvard zone, the Crimson offense was giving Husky goalie Donna Andrews fits.

The Crimson squad had its best chance to score with just over two minutes to play in regulation, but Mullen's shot off a penalty corner was stopped just short by an outstanding stab from Andrews.

As the game turned to overtime it looked as if the stickwomen might finally find the back of the net they had been prowling around all afternoon. With O'Neill, Andy Mainelli and Trina Burnham sparking the offense, and a talented and aggressive quarter of sophomores--including Alicia Clifton, Michelle Ippolito, Linda Runyon and Bambi Taylor--supplying the pressure, the Crimson opened the extra period on fire. But again, Andrews stifled the Harvard sticks.

With the game then apparently headed towards overtime, disaster struck. Just seconds after the officials ruled a Northeastern goal no good, the Huskies found the Harvard defense out of position. Although it was the visitors' only defensive error in an otherwise superlative afternoon, it was all the hosts needed to put the day's only score past an equally superlative Harvard netminder, Juliet Lamont, with only 1:50 left in overtime.

"It was just a matter of another setup," O'Neill said. "We had stopped them all days" THE NOTEBOOK: The Crimson looks to get back on the winning track at 6:30 p.m. Thursday when they play at Boston University...The Ivy League season opens Saturday when Penn visits Cambridge...For the record, Harvard outshot Northeastern, 8-4.