Crusaders Unholy in Victory

"It's an unspoken courtesy that you don't do that sort of thing. But it's not against the rules."--Harvard football Captain Scott Collins.

There is no reason to pity a losing football team. There is even less reason to pity Harvard, which played a terrible, mistake-filled game in Saturday's 41-0 drubbing at the hands of Holy Cross.

There is, however, a responsibility to play football, especially college football, with a certain degree of class.

Last week, Joe Restic conducted a clinic on class. His Crimson squad beat hapless Columbia, 34-0, but in the process Restic tried his hardest not to run up the score: he kept the ball on the ground, and he played his subs early and often. Restic even sent eight different quarterbacks into the game, six of whom were ordered not to throw the ball.

Harvard could have beaten Columbia 60-0. But Restic believes that humiliating a team serves no purpose, and that allowing second-and third-stringers (and even an eighth-stringer) to see action is his responsibility.

Holy Cross football Coach Mark Duffner obviously feels differently.

Duffner proved early in the game that, on this particular afternoon, his squad was superior to Harvard. The Crusaders executed beautifully to take an almost insurmountable lead.

Yet with a 21-0 advantage, Duffner had his team attempt an onside kickoff. At this point I began to scratch my head.

Duffner clearly wanted blood. He had his fine quaarterback, Jeff Wiley, throw long passes consistently, even on first down. A running strategy would have ended the contest more mercifully--and because the Crusader ground game was so successful, Holy Cross certainly would have protected its lead.

But the amazing stuff was just beginning.

The Cross continued to pass the ball and built a 41-0 lead. But Duffner did not sit on that cushion. Instead, he actually ran 10 consecutive pass plays (not including a punt). Ten consecutive pass plays.

And Duffner tried to convert three separate fourth down attempts, though his team was ahead by six touchdowns.

With less than a minute left in the game, Holy Cross was still throwing the ball, still calling time outs to see if it could put more points on the scoreboard.

The Holy Cross players weren't actually paradigms of sports manship, either. They were handed a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties late in the fourth period, with the game well in hand.

Memories of last year's miraculous 28-20 Harvard victory were obviously fresh in the minds of the Crusaders. On the field, many of them yelled "payback" and "last year!" at Harvard players.

"Holy Cross hates us. They have a vendetta," said Collins.

Perhaps, too, Holy Cross wanted to bolster its national standing, and to pad individual stats.

But that is no Jusitifcation. The irresponsible actions of the Holy Cross football program marred a fine job of coaching preparation by Duffner, and took attention away from the tremendous performances of quadruple threat Gordon Lock-baum, and quarterback Wiley.

Duffner was obviously elated by the game's outcome. "We're very pleased with our offense that we could score so many points," he said. Did he feel that he was running up the score? "No."

Restic, as usual was gracious in defeat, far more gracious than I would have been. "There are two sides to this game," he said, "and you have to be able to accept both sides." Was he antagonized by Duffner's punitive coaching style? "Not at all."

In the postgame press conference, Duffner also said, "I'm very proud of my staff." But his coaching staff--at least those who sat in the press box during the game--rivalled Duffner for classlessness.

Despite an unspoken code of quiet in the pressbox, the Holy Cross coaches whooped it up every chance they got. They clapped, laughed, and hooted throughout the game. They were studies in contrast to the Harvard coaches in last week's blowout of Columbia; in that game, the Crimson coaching staff was coldly clinical, quietly analyzing the game and the Harvard players.

As I was leaving the pressbox Saturday after Harvard's lopsided loss to the Crusaders, a staff member from the Holy Cross Sports Information office mocked Harvard, and told me, "It's a big boy's game."

He was right. But maybe Holy Cross "boys" just aren't big enough.