They growled and clawed more than a little bit at the beginning. A few of them, most notably head coach Ted Garber, were still snapping and snarling right down to the end. But for the most part the University of New Hampshire Wildcats proved pretty easy to tame.

The Harvard men's lacrosse team, certainly no Gunther Gable-Williams on this season's college lax circuit, put the whips and stools to a confused but hard-shooting UNH squad yesterday, 12-7, at the Business School Field.

Attack Norm Forbush, continuing his strong rebound from an early season shoulder separation, knocked in three goals to lead eight Crimson scoters, as the laxmen raised their record to 3-5. Co-captain Frank Prezioso, a defenseman on the offensive, and freshman middie Jamie Wright added two goals apiece for Harvard.

Three Stars

Three stars should also go to the Crimson defense, especially its anchor. All-American Haywood Miller, for harassing the Wildcat forwards relentlessly, forcing repeated errors.

"The defensive stickwork was continually creating fast breaks for us." Crimson coach Bob Scalise said after the game. "Haywood controlled his man totally--he ate him up." A majority of the Harvard goals resulted from defensively created opportunities, including an almost picture-perfect fast break tally at the 12:58 mark of the opening period.

Crimson middle Bobby Burr picked up a loose ball that the defense had knocked away and carried it over the midfield line. Burr then launched an arching lead pass to middle Vic Kazanjian, who made a reaching catch without breaking stride. Kazanjian raced toward the Wild at net, but dumped the ball off to a railing Forbush, and before UNH goalie E I Schwab could properly introduce himself, the ball was in the net behind him.

Nothing Wrong With Your TV

In the meantime, UNH coach Garber was busy trying to bring his team back from the twilight zone. The Wildcats were offsides too many times to count, although the official's only noticed about half of the infractions. Still, half of too many is a lot, especially since offsides has been a rare call in Harvard games so far this season.

The Wildcats broke up the monotony of offsides by alternating having too many men and not enough men on the field at one time. During the confusion. Harvard turned a four-all first quarter tie into an 8-5 halftime lead, and never looked back from then on.

Garber's troubles mounted after he thought he'd caught the Crimson with its guard down. Or rather, with its strings long. The UNH coach accused Harvard defender Eric Mendelman of having more than the allowed two inches of extra cord protruding from his stick. But the referees checked it out and said the stick was okay.

It's a good thing the ref didn't see the scissors.