Laxmen Destroy Pitiful Vermont

The Harvard men's lacrosse team defeated the University of Vermont 18-3 yesterday afternoon, but it was never as close as the score implies. Harvard (4-0, 1-0 Ivy) extended its undefeated start by dominating a helpless Vermont squad.

The Crimson, currently ranked 12th in the nation, followed its stunning upset over then eighth-ranked Duke Blue Devils with a very strong performance against the Catamounts (1-4).

Wednesday's game was the team's home opener, and the cold winds of Ohiri Field did not prevent Harvard from torching the Vermont defense.

Leading the Crimson charge was senior co-captain Mike Eckert. Eckert set the pace for the game, scoring the first goal less than one minute after face-off. He finished the day with five goals and seven assists.

"Their defense was pourus, and once we started moving the ball and taking better shots the goals started to come," Eckert said.

Harvard had almost total control of the game for the first three periods, and lead 15-1 going into the final quarter.

Though they were trailing by a huge deficit, the Catamounts seemed unable to penetrate the Crimson defense and seemed content to merely pass the ball around the perimeter when they had control of the ball on offense.

However, Vermont got a small break when Harvard started the fourth quarter a man-down as a result of a penalty called on sophomore Mike Ferrucci for having an illegal stick. The Catamounts managed to score two goals during the three unreleasable minutes Ferrucci spent in the box, but the Crimson quickly answered with three goals of its own to which resulted in the final score of 18-3.

Harvard's dominance had a negative effect on the composure of the Vermont team. Catamount players expressed their frustrations with the game's officiating and Vermont's coach, Jeff Thomsen, was called for an illegal action penalty after he had some words with an official.

A Vermont player even tried to provoke a fight with a Harvard attackman, and failing in this endeavor, took an Oscar-caliber drive when he was nudged by a Crimson player in an effort to draw the refs' attention.

Yet the Crimson offense would not be distracted by the Catamounts' shenanigans. The ball was distributed well, as eight different Harvard players tallied goals.

"This was an opportunity to focus on our offense and build confidence for our style of play," Harvard coach Scott Anderson said.

Anderson also emphasized the team's strong defensive performance, mentioning junior goalie Rob Lyng strong play in the net. Vermont's reluctance to shoot kept Lyng from facing a large number of shots, but the netminder's play was solid.

"I've got to give the defense credit. They played a great game, allowed Vermont to have only one quick shot and kept their players out of the crease," Lyng said.

The Crimson schedule gets much harder in the games to come. This Saturday Harvard plays an 11th-ranked Notre Dame squad at 1 p.m. at Ohiri Field, followed by games against Brown, Princeton, UMass and Yale--all Top 20 teams. Vermont  3 Harvard  18