Freshman Lacrosse Squad Scores With 8-1 Record

After the freshman lacrosse team over-whelmed Yale, 14-4, for its sixth straight win and eighth of the season against only one loss, beer and champagne followed in abundance at Dillon Field House. The Yardling stickmen had reason to celebrate. They were, according to Coach Jim Lentz, the "finest freshman lacrosse team I've had in my ten years at Harvard."

Lentz admitted that, midway through the season, he had been worried. "When we beat a weak Governor Dummer team by only 9-5, and then followed that with a lackluster 10-4 performance against Dartmouth, another weak team. I felt that the boys hadn't improved too much from their early season showings," he said.

Topped Exeter

"But when we came back real strong and whipped a previously undefeated Exeter squad, 12-3, and followed that with strong wins over Andover and Yale," Lentz continued. "That's when we became a lacrosse team."

The team leaders, throughout the season, were midfielder Bruce Regan, the squad's captain, and John Ince, an attackman from Long Island. Regan, the best high school player in Maryland last year, was to quote Lentz, "a great lacrosse player. He's the best midfielder I've seen at Harvard."

Regan's 34 points -- on 22 goals and 12 assists -- placed him second to Ince in team scoring. A quick, aggressive shooter, Ince -- starting out with 11 goals in his first two games -- ended up with 50 points on 30 goals and 20 assists. "As a freshman he's just as good as Grady Watts was, and Grady later became an all-American," Lentz said of Ince.

Mike Davies, a midfielder from Exeter, and defensemen Pete Barber and Bob McDowell also contributed to the team's success. "And Kirby Wilcox -- with 91 saves for the season -- did a real nice job as goalie." Lentz pointed out.

Another Maryland player, Paul Bloom, accounted for 23 of the freshmen's record 111 goals. Bloom, who played both attack and midfield, was a good offensive player, with impressive moves in close to the net.

Lentz pointed to the improvement of Gordy Grant, another freshman who doubled as an attackman and a midfielder, as an important part of the stickmen's strong finish. Bob Johnson, from Baltimore, came out late for the team, but "gave us the opportunity to have a second midfield, which we desperately needed," Lentz said.

New Two

As a result, two boys new to the sport. Chuck Weed and Craig Sterrett, were able to play a good deal, and showed solid improvement throughout the season.

Lentz gave a good deal of the credit for the lacrossemen's success to his two assistant coaches. Bill Miller, who worked with the defense, and Tag Sweeney, who helped out the attackmen.

"This was a team that worked hard to win, and the results show that they worked hard enough. The one loss -- to Brown -- came after a week and half layoff and the boys still made me proud there by coming back from a 6-0 first quarter deficit to make it close at the end. This was a real solid ball club," Lentz said.