Ka-Booom!!! Men's Lacrosse Blows Apart UNH, 21-4

If you walked down to Ohiri Field yesterday afternoon and took a look at the scoreboard, you might have thought you'd have walked into an NFL stadium. UNH  4 Harvard  21

Fresh on the heels of their 18-7 smashing of Yale on Saturday, the Harvard men's lacrosse team (6-5 overall, 3-2 Ivy) trounced UNH, 21-4.

"We came to play today," freshman attack Mike Ferrucci said. "We played as a team."

Things started slowly for the Crimson, and the Wildcats actually took a 1-0 lead in the first quarter on a score by attack Dave Hanchett.

But the Crimson came back on a beautiful play between Ferrucci and junior midfielder Pat Marvin.

Ferrucci took a pass from behind the goal, spotted an open Marvin charging toward the goal, and fired a crisp pass to him. Marvin cranked the shot in from about 10 yards out.

UNH got another score before the quarter was out, but Harvard again came back.

Senior defenseman Jon Ponosuk stole the ball at midfield and sent the ball to junior attackman Mike Eckert on the left side of the net.

Eckert then spotted a wide-open Ferrucci charging to the crease, and fed him the ball, which Ferrucci immediately sent home past bewildered Wildcat goalie Gary Foster.

A third goal in the first stanza gave Harvard a slim 3-2 lead heading into the second, and victory was by no means assured.

And then, the deluge.

Harvard took complete command of the game in the second quarter, scoring eight unanswered goals to head into the second half with an almost insurmountable 11-2 lead.

Keying the attack were Ferrucci, who had a goal and four assists in the period, Eckert, who had an unassisted goal and an assist in the period, and senior attack Jamie Ames, who recorded two goals in the period.

Harvard's offensive crush was Keyed by its complete control of possession, and for that Harvard had to thank its faceoff specialist junior mid-fielder Pat McCulloch, who won seven of the nine faceoffs in the second stanza and 11 of the 15 in the first period.

"Pat McCulloch was amazing on faceoffs," junior defenseman Tim Browne said.

Harvard's recovery of ground balls also helped the team maintain possession.

"We've been working a lot on ground balls in practice," Ferrucci said. "It's playing off."

Everybody got into the scoring act.

Senior defenseman Sean Lavin, sophomore midfielder Mike Connors and junior Chris Wojick, all had tallies against the Wildcats in the second quarter.

From there on, the Crimson played in cruise control, able to do pretty much whatever they wanted on the field.

The third stanza saw the Crimson score seven more unanswered goals, and Harvard added three more in the final quarter to round out the score.

Another bright spot for the Crimson was that many of the players on the team's large roster saw action yesterday.

"The starters realize that if they play well early they can give others a chance to play," Harvard Coach Scott Anderson said. "It's a strong team in that sense."

The team now is preparing to finish its season, with one home game remaining (against C.W. Post next Wednesday) and against Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H.

The Crimson is looking for a strong finish.

"The Dartmouth game is the difference between a .500 and a 4-2 Ivy season," Coach Anderson said. "These are important games--one builds on the other."

Harvard, 21-4 at Ohiri Field UNH  2  0  0  2  --  4 Harvard  3  8  7  3--  21

G: UNH--Hanchett (2), Ocampo, Giang; Harvard--Ames 96), Ferrucci (4), J. Bevilacqua (4), Wojcik (2), Eckert, Lavin, Conners, M. Marvin, P. Marvin. A: UNH--McCulloch; Harvard--Ferrucci (5), Eckert (3), Gaffney (3), Westhelie (2), Ames, Leary, Crofton, M. Marvin.

S: UNH--Geisler 5-4-5-2 16; Harvard--Lyng 5-2-2-0 9; Chetron 0-0-0-2 2; Margolin 0.