Bears Pummel Laxmen

All the signs pointed towards a competitive game between the Harvard and Brown men's lacrosse teams at Ohiri Field yesterday:

Harvard was fresh off its first victory of the season. After hard fought losses to Duke and Hofstra, the Crimson had finally won one on Saturday.

The game was at home. The Crimson finally would get to see the beautiful green grass of Ohiri field. And the fans would actually cheer a Harvard goal.

Everything just seemed so right for the men from Cambridge. But one thing had been forgotten: exactly how good the Brown Bears really are.

The Bears are not sixth in the nation for nothing, after all, and they devoured the young Harvard squad, 19-6.

"They were better at every position today," Harvard Coach Scott Anderson said.

Sophomore Pat Marvin voiced similar sentiments.

"They were simply a great team," Marvin said.

But Harvard knew this coming in. It knew that nothing less than a great effort and solid play would do the job.

Unfortunately, the Rolling Stones not-withstanding, you don't always get what you need. Yesterday, Harvard certainly did not.

"We didn't play up to our abilities," Anderson said. "I knew coming in they would be good, so I was more surprised by our play than theirs."

After playing the Bears close in the first half (Brown took a 5-2 lead into intermission), Harvard came out in the second half flat and looking tired. The inspired play that the Crimson showed in the first half was gone.

Brown scored a couple of quick goals, and from there it was all down-hill for the Crimson.

Coach Anderson attributed the letdown to intimidation. He felt his men played scared and looked intimidated by the highly ranked Brown squad.

But considering the competition that Harvard has already played this year, this explanation does not explain the whole story.

Brown simply was better, and it wore down the young Harvard team. Harvard showed that it could play with the best in the nation for a half, but not a whole game.

"The key was groundballs," Marvin said. "They swarmed the groundballs and as a result got some easy transition goals."

Brown grabbed 85 groundballs to Harvard's 53. A team just cannot win with this great a deficit in the groundball area.

In addition, the constant pressure on the Harvard defense finally showed results. Brown peppered the net with 48 shots.

Harvard has a great defensive unit led by senior Co-Captain Chad Prusmack, but it cannot carry the weight of the whole team. It simply broke down yesterday.

"They're a young talented team," Brown Coach Peter Lasagna said. "But we just won so many faceoffs in a row, they were forced to play too much defense. We are quite strong on offense, so if we have that many opportunities, we are going to score some goals."

On the bright side (for there usually is one) was the continued production from the young offense.

Freshman Mike Eckerd added another goal to his superb season, and sophomores Marvin (two goals), Steve Gaffney (one goal), and Dan Nickolas (one goal and assist) contributed to the team scoring.

But in the end, it wasn't nearly enough. Harvard faced a stronger Brown squad and did not play up to its potential.

And that's a combination that would prove fatal for any team in any sport.