Nationally-Ranked Laxmen Roughed Up

You can't win a 60-minute game in only 15 minutes.

Yesterday, the Harvard men's lacrosse team found this out the hard way.

The laxmen lost to Brown, 9-6, at Stevenson field in Providence, Rhode Island, in front of 140 spectators. It was only the second time this year that the Crimson (7-2) has fallen.

After 30 minutes of play, the Crimson found itself behind 4-1. Wondering what was going wrong, and feeling a little frustrated, the Harvard players tried to regroup during the intermission.

An early third quarter goal gave the Bruins (6-4) a 5-1 lead. But the game was far from over. The Crimson dug in deep and turned in 15 minutes of top-notch lacrosse. The offense moved the ball well with pinpoint passing and executed its plays sharply.

"We played very well in the third quarter," Harvard Coach Scott Anderson said. "We showed a lot of composure at that point in the game and never gave up."

Harvard scored four consecutive goals to tie the game with a quarter remaining.

Freshman Mickey Cavuoti began the third quarter scoring with a strong move towards the cage.

David Kramer rounded out Harvard's offensive effort with the last four goals. Three of these came in the third quarter and at 13:50 of the fourth he burned Bruin goalie Steven Ayers once more.

Unfortunately, the final period resembled the first half more than it did the third quarter. The Bruins were able to jump ahead 9-5 and Harvard was never able to catch up.

"It was like our Penn game [a 15-10 loss]," Kramer said. "We played a miserable first half."

"We didn't have any possession in the first quarter and very little in the second," said Anderson. "We ended up playing defense most of the time."

Harvard wasn't able to get on the scoreboard until late in the second quarter. Midfielder Robert Griffith took a pass from attackmen Steve Lux. With a flick of his wrist he quickly erased the goose egg with one minute remaining.

"It is a credit to our defense that we were only down 4-1 at halftime," Anderson said.

Harvard goalie Michael Bergmann was able to keep Harvard in the game with 18 saves, tying his season high. The Bruins' Ayers had only six, but they came on some very tough shots.

"We just didn't generate enough offense," Anderson said.

A major factor in the game was shot differential. The Bruins fired on goal 43 times while the Crimson had only 25 chances.

"Their goalie played pretty well," Anderson said. "We didn't have many shots but the ones we had were good opportunities."

The Bruins' Bernie Buonanno, Sam Iserson, Greg Rogers and Jamie Munro were all able to cash in on their goal scoring opportunities. Not just once but twice.

"There is a lot of pressure on us to play consistently," Anderson said. "We have been consistent in all but two of our games. Those two games Penn and Brown, have hurt us."

"We only played 15 minutes of lacrosse and we can't win like that," said Kramer.