Tigers Pound Crimson Stickmen, 17-7

The Harvard lacrosse season, which began with hopes for a spot in the nation's top ten and then became a disappointment with last week's loss to lowly Yale, slid toward downright disaster Saturday when Princeton thrashed the stickmen, 17-7.

Suffering their third straight loss, the 4-6 laxmen now need to knock off ninth-ranked UMass this week just to keep alive their chances for a winning season. After the battle with the Minutemen, the Crimson wrap up the season with games against Williams and Dartmouth.

The home-standing Tigers had Saturday's game won by the end of the first quarter, holding Harvard to single tallies by Pete Predun and Chico MacKenzie while driving Crimson goalie Jim Michelson to the bench with a nine-goal barrage. Sophomore Kenny First took over in net, and Princeton got to him for eight more scores the rest of the way.

Only 30 seconds into the game, freshman Dave Heubeck fed the ball to middie Eric Scholl for the Tigers' first marker, and the home team never looked back.

All-American Dave Tickner, playing at midfield after two years as a star attackman, connected for a 2-0 Princeton lead. After Predun countered for the Crimson, the Tigers reeled off five straight scores, two by freshman Bobby Thomas, for a 7-1, advantage.

MacKenzie notched his first goal of the day to end the Princeton rampage, but Heubeck and Tickner found the net as the quarter ran out to give the Tigers an insurmountable lead.

Four More Goals

Princeton added four more goals in the second stanza with the school's leading career scorer, Wicky Sollers, finally breaking through for his first of the day. MacKenzie scored his second of the day for the Crimson, and Mike Faught got his first.

After languishing on the bench early in the season as a reserve attackman, Faught has won a starting spot on midfield, and has been the only real middie scoring threat the team has had in recent games. He garnered a second goal in the fourth quarter.

With the game safely tucked into the win column after dominating the first half, 13-4, Princeton started substituting in the second 30 minutes, and the two teams played out the string. Late goals by Sollers and little-used middie Jay Bennett made the final score 17-7 after Harvard had outscored the Tiger contingent in the initial 24 minutes of the second half, 3-2.