Traveling in Two Directions

They used different modes of transportation. The Adelphi lacrosse team was riding in a golf cart. Harvard was sitting behind the wheel of a Ferrari.

After the first quarter of Saturday's Panther-Crimson match-up at Ohiri Field, Harvard kissed Adelphi goodbye at the airport and jumped in a Lear jet. Adelphi could only wave from the runway.

Saturday, a good game after one period became a blowout after two. At game's end, Harvard was the owner of an 8-3 victory. Meanwhile, the Panthers were still panting.

"I expected them to be better," Harvard goalie and Tri-Captain Mike Bergmann said.

Last year, Adelphi was nationally-ranked. This year, the Panthers came to Ohiri Field, which once again could have passed as an Eskimo ski resort, with a 2-3 record and a reputation as a fierce and high-scoring team.

Adelphi was fierce all right. The Panthers hit double figures in penalties before the first half. But high-scoring? After one quarter, the game was tied, 1-1. After two, Adelphi still had only one goal to its name. Harvard had five.

"Our boys did not follow the game plan," Adelphi Coach Paul Doherty said. "Bergmann is a great goalie. He's strong low. We wanted to shoot high, but we didn't. We shot low and he ate them up."

Said Bergmann, munching on a Panther butter sandwich: "The problem is they didn't generate any quality shots. Three goals is not going to win a lacrosse game."

Perhaps more remarkable than the Harvard blowout was the fact that Adelphi kept the game close for a period. After 15 minutes of play, the two teams looked as evenly matched as a pair of drunken Western gunslingers preparing to duel.

The crowd soon realized one of the drunks was pretending. In the second quarter, Harvard whipped out its gun, its aim dead accurate.

"It takes awhile to get into the rhythm," Harvard Tri-Captain Bill Pennoyer said. "The team came out really hard, but it takes awhile to put some goals in the net."

Crosse-Check

But when it rains, which it threatened to do Saturday, it pours. And after two quarters, Adelphi was sopping wet.

"We had a whole lot of shots," Bergmann said. "In the first half, their goalie must have had 10 saves on shots we just hit him with. If you get that many shots, some of them are going to drop."

Harvard midfielder Robert Griffith opened the flood gates with a shot over the middle with 10 minutes left in the half. David Kramer followed, driving from midfield before releasing a shot from 30 feet which flew past Panther goalie Jim Cheeseman with six minutes remaining. Steve Lux and Kramer added goals before the half expired.

"This is what we hoped for," Pennoyer said. "This is what we worked for."

Like good New Yorkers, the Panthers accepted it all with a shrug and a smile. "You're all a bunch of (word begins with p, and it ain't Panthers)," Adelphi defenseman Barry Greenberg yelled to his teammates in the third quarter.

Harvard had pulled its Ferrari onto route rout. Meanwhile, Adelphi was trudging along heartbreak highway, its thumb extended in the cold breeze.