Brown Dumps Lacrosse Team, 11-5

"This is it, guys, the NCAA bid. So play it smart," said Brown lacrosse coach Cliff Stevenson, as the rain poured down and made his crisp new ball-cap soggy. "They can't make up five goals unless you let them. So let's have no goddam banana passes."

Stevenson was worrying quite a bit down at the Business School field yesterday. He is a tense, overenergetic man by nature, and the fact that Brown was making banana passes and other bad things with first place in the Ivy League and an NCAA bid at stake irritated him visibly.

His concern, with five minutes remaining' in the game was unwarranted. After holding off an inspired Harvard effort for thirty minutes, Brown's powerful lacrosse squad had tallied four third-period goals and went on to dump the Crimson, 11-5, eliminating it from the Ivy race, and all but extinguishing any Harvard hopes of a bid to the NCAA playoffs.

Since the Crimson was one of the last two obstacles remaining in the Bruins' quest for an Ivy title, Stevenson had brought his squad up from Providence a little earlier than usual, so that the squad might have sufficient time to think about the game. "If you arrive late, you dress in a hurry, and don't take the time to figure out what you're going to do." Stevenson said later. "You can get blown off the field right away."

As it turned out, Harvard captain Rick Frisbie scored off the opening face-off, and Brown was behind immediately, but only a determined effort by substitute goalie Joe Walker kept Harvard in contention much longer than that.

The Bruins quickly gamed control of the game in the midfield and peppered Walker with a flurry of shots, which he turned away successfully until only a few minutes remained in the opening quarter.

But Brown midfielder Jeff Wagner found the range at 11:14, and teammate Steve Russo tallied a second Brown goal two minutes later. Bruin Kevin Cleere increased the lead to 3-1 early in the second period and it appeared that Brown was pulling out of reach.

"Walker is a body goalie," Stevenson said, "and body goalies often get into trouble. When I walked out there and saw that he had a short stick. I knew that if we could put the shots on the net, we'd have them."

Still, Walker performed effectively enough in his second varsity contest to keep Brown at bay until Harvard's Lief Rosenberger and Phil Zuckerman could tie the score with a pair of goals early in the second period. Rosenberger fired through a crowd from the right side at 3:22; Zuckerman took a pretty cross-field pass from Dave Crawford and beat Brown goaltender Doug Spiro all alone at 6:32.

But thereafter Brown began to dominate the midfield activity with increasing success, and hammered away at Harvard's defensive structure for two more goals before halftime. The Bruins went ahead 6-3 at the five-minute mark of the third period on Cleere's second goal, and though Zuckerman kept the Crimson within reasonable striking distance with another tally moments later. Brown exploded with a man-advantage goal, an unassisted score, and Cleere's third tally within a brief time span to finish Harvard off. Line Caplan flicked a shot past Spiro to narrow the score to 9-5 after three periods, but Brown added two more goals in the final period to resolve the issue without doubt.

Harvard, now 3-3, must win its final four games, and defeat Yale convincingly. to have a chance at one of the four at-large bids to the NCAA playoffs. Brown, 7-1, needs to defeat Cornell in Providence next week to capture the Ivy crown; yesterday's victory assured the Bruins of the District 1 berth, barring complete collapse.