Bruins Tame Laxmen; Crimson Falls, 14-10

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--Bernie beat them in the first two periods.

Bruno pounded them in the third.

In the fourth quarter, the players on the Harvard men's lacrosse team finally shut down Brown's "Killer B's"--forwards Bernard ("Bernie") Buonanno and Tom ("Bruno") Gagnon.

But, by then, the duo had combined for eight of Brown's 13 goals.

And they began to exhibit some of their other skills.

Like passing.

And running.

And wasting time.

Their scoring done, Bernie and Bruno took charge of Brown's stall game.

And although the Crimson was able to outwit lacrosse's version of basketball's "four corners"--netting three final period goals--it wasn't able to catch the Bruins (6-4 overall, 2-0 Ivy), who won, 14-10, in front of 250 spectators at Stevenson Field yesterday.

"We played defense for too much of the game," said Harvard Coach Bob Scalise, whose team fell to 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the Ivy League. "We couldn't handle the pressure on the offensive end."

"They came back a couple times," Buonnano said. "But we felt we controlled the game and waited until the clock ran out."

Yesterday's matchup featured two of New England's top three clubs: Brown was ranked second in the New England area and 14th in the country, and the Crimson was third and 16th respectively.

The region's top two teams will receive automatic NCAA bids.

The Crimson jumped to a 3-1 lead with five minutes left in the first quarter.

But when the period was over, Brown had snuck ahead, 5-3.

"Everytime we had the ball, it looked like we could score," Harvard Co-Captain Chris Pujols said. "But we didn't get the ball that often. They kept coming down with their ball-control offense."

Buonnano missed a back-handed flip at the beginning of the second quarter and Harvard junior Rufus Clark charged to the Brown end, beating Bruin goalie Scott Lohan from the left.

Down only 6-4, the Crimson put together several rushes in the middle of the period--including two blasts from attack Nick Nero.

But Lohan, who finished with 14 saves, stalled the Harvard offense and Gagnon and Buonnano pumped in back-to-back goals to put the Bruins in front, 8-4, with 11 minutes left in the half.

Both teams netted three goals apiece before halftime.

"We felt we could come back," Scalise said. "But we were a little too tentative on the attack in the second half."

And the Crimson couldn't stop Gagnon, who pounded home two of his game-high five goals in the third period.

"More important than those goals was the way we played defense," Gagnon said. "We didn't let them score in the third period."

Gagnon flipped in his final goal of the game with six minutes left in the third quarter.

"Way to go, Bruno, way to go," the crowd chanted.

Harvard attack Tom Corcoran pounded home two goals, and King added another in the final stanza.

THE NOTEBOOK Harvard has now lost two in a row...Corcoran finished with a team-high three goals. Clark and Brad Raymond had two goals each... Harvard goalie Mark Vita recorded 23 saves...Gagnon led the Bruins in assists with three...Pujols netted one goal to give him a team-leading 16 on the year...Gagnon leads the Bruins in both goals (23) and assists (18).