Laxmen Stun Eighth-Ranked Penn, 17-4

Even W.C. Fields would have liked this trip to Philadelphia.

The Harvard men's lacrosse team took an excursion to the City of Brotherly Love this weekend and stunned eighth-ranked Pennsylvania with a 17-4 stomping Saturday night at Franklin Field.

"It was an amazing game; I've never seen everything work so well in one game before," summed up Crimson sophomore crease defenseman Scott Pink yesterday, while recovering from the team's all-night celebration on the bus and 5:30 a.m. return to Cambridge.

Pink and his defensive mates Mike Kennedy, Haywood Miller and Frank Prezioso were particularly impressive, as they complemented the brilliant offensive performances of Steve Martin and Mike Faught by suffocating the usually-potent Quaker attack.

"Our team defense has been our strong point all year," Harvard coach Bob Scalise commented. "One guy gets beat and another guy is always there to back him up. They've kept us in games right from the beginning when we held Hopkins (which averages over 18 goals per game) to 11 goals," he added.

There was some question last week about the Crimson defensive trio with Miller and Prezioso ailing due to injuries. But Miller's sore shoulder held up fine until he was lifted for Mac DeCamp midway through the second half. Prezioso rested his bad ankle except when the Crimson was a man down, but he still managed to block six shots while killing penalties. "He's crazy," said goalie Kenny First of his guardian's fearlessness before Penn bullets.

When the D didn't come through, First, a native of nearby Merion, Pa., was there--delighting the mass of hometown supporters on hand by blocking, catching, or smothering everything the Quakers could throw at him. He finished with 16 saves.

Despite the double preparation of playing Tuesday night's Mass Maritime game under identical conditions (e.g. under the lights and on astro-turf) and eating Saturday afternoon's salami lunch at First's house, the Crimson was a little tight when they took to the turf Saturday night at historic Franklin Field.

Penn took control early while Harvard fumbled passes and tried to get it in gear, and after only 43 seconds the Quakers took a one-goal lead when George Papenfuss beat First with a dart into the upper right corner of the net.

Scrappy senior Steve Martin kept the Crimson close in the first period, answering the Penn tally with the first of his nine points (five goals, four assists) when he picked up a loose ball and stuffed it into the Penn cage at 2:21. The opening stanza ended at one apiece, but after Penn's Krempa tickled the twine to make it 2-1, it was Martin again who knotted the score for Harvard.

The hustling Long Islander picked off an errant clearing pass from the Quaker's first team All-American defenseman Tony DelGiorno and tossed it into the empty net to erase Penn's lead for the last time. Just seconds later, Jamie Egasti put the Crimson ahead to stay with an unassisted effort.

About two minutes after that, Chris "The Beast" Doherty--whom Scalise praised for his help on clears and aggressive offense--drove past a Penn middle and uncorked a high shot which was knocked down by the Quaker goaltender, momentarily caught in his stick, but then dropped into the net. Doherty's goal was a turning point, as the Crimson really clicked after that.

"Getting the lead was a big factor," explained surprisingly strong defenseman Pink afterwards. "We had never really been ahead of a good team like Penn early. After awhile, we were really pumped up, let me tell you. Everyone was going Borneo all over the place."

The Crimson added another tally from Billy Forbush to go into the half with a 5-2 advantage, and it came out red hot for the second half. After Jamie Egasti won the opening face-off, Mike Faught got the all-important, momentum-creating first goal after the half (the first of five for Faught) on a feed from Martin with only a minute gone. When Martin added his third goal of the contest another 70 seconds later, the Crimson was up 7-2 and looking good.

Penn staged a minor comeback midway through the period, however. First Pink fell down on a Penn break and the Quakers capitalized to make it 7-3, and then Penn's Victor Trautman dodged a Crimson midfielder and fired one past First to bring the home team within three.

But just as the momentum began to shift. Egasti won another key face-off, and Faught scored his second goal to puncture Penn's balloon.

"They gave up after that," recounted Pink, adding, "Their defense completely collapsed in the last period." Martin and Faught led the Crimson scoring jamboree of nine unanswered goals, with lots of help from sophomore standout Pete Predun, who notched four assists despite the fact that the All-American DelGiorno was keying on him all night.

"This was the first time we played like we really can play," Faught said, echoing the sentiments of a whole squad eager to show it was of the same caliber as Cornell, Penn, Hopkins and some of the other heavyweights on its schedule.

The Crimson's next test will be Saturday against arch-rival Brown. Scoring Summary   Goals  Assists  Points Steven Martin  5  4  9 Mike Faught  5  1  6 Pete Predun  0  4  4 Hank Leopold  1  1  2 Jim Ossyra  2  0  2 Bill Forbush  2  0  2 Jamie Egasti  1  0  1 Christ Doherty  1  0  1 Frank Prezioso  0  1  1

Score by periods:  1  2  3  4 Harvard  1  4  6  6  17 Pennsylvania  1  1  2  0  4

Saves:

First (H)--16

Baila (P)--10

Score by periods:  1  2  3  4 Harvard  1  4  6  6  17 Pennsylvania  1  1  2  0  4

Saves:

First (H)--16

Baila (P)--10

Saves:

First (H)--16

Baila (P)--10