While the Crimson gridders fell to fourth Saturday, the Harvard men's field hockey team captured an Ivy title of sorts by downing an outmatched Princeton squad, 5-3, in New Haven.
Because only three Ivy League schools--Harvard. Princeton and Yale--have men's field hockey clubs, last weekend's tournament was heralded as a championship battle. But, for the second year in a row. Yale could not come up with 11 players, and it was up to the Crimson and the Tigers to fight for first in the East.
The Harvard stickmen came out firing, swarming all around the Princeton goal and narrowly missing several scoring opportunities in the first few minutes.
The pressure quickly paid off when co-captain Drew Stone scored on a penalty shot awarded because a Princeton defender fell on the ball in front of the goal.
Control
Throughout the first half, the Crimson controlled the ball and passed extremely well. Goals by Med School student Sanjay Saini. Khalid Ibrahim and left inner Dave Montana on a beautiful Ibrahim pass behind the defense gave Harvard a commanding 4-0 halftime lead.
In the second half, the stickmen were sloppy, allowing the Princetonians to pepper goalie Mike Arbuckle with shots. Harvard's lead, however, was just too much. Ibrahim's second tally of the day, on a pass from Stone early in the half, put the game out of reach. And the Crimson hung on to take the alleged Ivy crown.
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