Yale Tops Laxmen, 13-5, Ends 5-Year Losing Skein

The 1980's haven't been very kind to the Yale men's lacrosse team. In Ivy play: 1980, Yale 0-6; 1981, Yale 0-6; 1982, Yale, 0-6; 1983, Yale 0-4. This was all after a stellar 1-5 1979 slate.

Not as bad as the Mets, but nothing to write home about.

Enter the Harvard men's lacrosse team.

When the laxmen visited New Haven on Saturday, the Elis were winless in five years of Ivy play. The natives didn't just have a chip on their shoulders, they were toting a Beineke-Library sized burden.

And in the mud Saturday afternoon the Elis were finally able to dump their woes and the stigma of going 0-for-the-eighties. They dumped it squarely on the Crimson, posting a 13-5 victory.

"We knew we had to win one [Ivy game] this year," Yale Ken Lenskold said. "And we knew we had to win this one. If we had lost this one we would have lost the whole season."

The Elis had already lost four Ivy contests in 1984, and had been soundly thumped by a never-to-be-taken-less-than-very-seriously Cornell squad, 12-4, on Wednesday.

The frustrated Bulldogs held a team meeting and set their sights on Harvard. So a great rivalry became a great psychological advantage.

Enter Yale's eleventh player. Saturday was one of those wet and grimy days that are awful anywhere, but in New Haven they're well...

"We had two-and-a-half hours on the bus and it was cold and raining when we got there," Harvard Captain Rob Sherlock said.

Even by New Haven standards the conditions were unusual, but they were nothing less than ideal for the natives.

"The field was real bad," Lenskold said, "And that just got us up even more."

The contest started out evenly; the teams exchanged an early pair of goals.

But then Yale poured five seasons worth of frustration into the firebox and delivered a first-round knockout. By the time the battered laxmen escaped from the first quarter, it was 8-3 Yale and the game was all but over.

Harvard Coach Bob Scalise pulled starting goalie T.J. Woel in favor of freshman Mike Bergman, but the problem wasn't really to be found in the crease, since the Elis had helled the starter throughout the opening period.

The swampy conditions set up the Yale transition game and played hell with the controlled, half-field offense favored by the visitors.

But both sides were quick to point out that strategy didn't determine the outcome of this one.

Sherlock conceded the Elis intangibles made all the difference.

"They were very psyched, more emotionally into it. We're not a rah-rah type of team"

And if you give Yale just a single "rah" for every winless year, the Elis are, at a minimum, a rah-rah-rah-rah-rah team. Which, all together, left the laxmen five "rahs" and eight goals short. Yale, 13-5 at New Haven Harvard  3  0  0  2--5 Yale  8  4  1  0--13

Goals: H. Peter Follows 2, Chris Pujors Paul Garavanne, Rob Howley, Y. Gartter 3, Lenskolode 2, Snow 2, Moran 2, Ward 2, Cromwell, Reach Assists : Y. Leriskolods, Snow, Moran, Ward

Goals: H. Peter Follows 2, Chris Pujors Paul Garavanne, Rob Howley, Y. Gartter 3, Lenskolode 2, Snow 2, Moran 2, Ward 2, Cromwell, Reach Assists : Y. Leriskolods, Snow, Moran, Ward