Laxmen Tame Tigers, Capture 15-5 Victory

Ohiri Field was never meant to be a game preserve.

But the entire feline family is becoming extinct there. On April 6, the Catamounts were crushed, and on April 16, the Panthers were pulverized. The latest victims in this series of killings were the Tigers.

Saturday, the Harvard men's lacrosse team (8-2) slayed and flayed Princeton (1-9), 15-5, in front of 220 spectators. The Crimson's offensive effort, including eight fourth quarter goals, equalled its most productive of the season.

Harvard began the fourth period with a 7-5 lead, in what had been up until that point a closely fought battle. However, the Crimson was not content to just play tough defense and cruise to a close victory. It wanted an annihilation.

"We all knew we were the better team," midfielder Perry Dodge said.

And an annihilation is what the Crimson got.

Freshman Mickey Cavuoti, who had a hat trick, began the onslaught at 4:02 of the fourth quarter, with an outside bullet.

Brad Raymond set up Cavuoti with a perfect pass for the freshman's goal. Raymond lead the team in scoring with two goals and three assists.

From then on, Harvard scored at will. Princeton switched goalies, replacing John Wright--who had played an excellent first half and had 12 saves--with back-up Mike Millner. But, this switch didn't prove to be a problem for the Crimson's offense.

Within a span of three minutes, Millner experienced a bad case of shellshock as the Crimson greeted him with three quick strikes.

Thirty seconds later at the 8:08 mark, Harvard defenseman John Gates scooped up the ball deep in his own zone. His eyes were set on the opposite end of the field and off he went. Charging the length of the field, the long-stick defender fired home his first goal of the year.

It was clear that the Tigers were doomed to destruction, but the Crimson never let up.

"Once we started to score a lot, they lost their composure and started to get down on themselves," said Tri-Captain Bill Pennoyer.

After a brief lull in the fierce attack, the Crimson once again loaded its repeating rifle. Before Millner had time to recover, the Crimson scored three more goals in the final three minutes of the game.

Attacker Nick Nero fed Neil Garfinkel passes right in front of the net for two of the goals. Both times Garfinkel quick-sticked the ball past Millner.

On the other goal sequence, Pennoyer looked like he was going to follow in follow defender Gates' footprints as he sprinted across the midfield line straight towards the cage. As he approached the net, Pennoyer dumped the ball off to Raymond, who pegged the upper corner.

"Offensively they did things not unexpected," Princeton Coach Bill Tierney said. "We knew who their big guns were."