With the hard-fought opening round of the New England championships behind it and more tough competition looming in the next round, nine days from now at Brown, the Harvard water polo team decided to take a breather last night.

In all fairness to the aquamen from the University of Rhode Island, they might have given the Crimson a closer game had they not learned of their trip to Blodgett Pool just five hours before game time. And, for a few minutes at the start, it even looked like the Rams might give the home team a run for its money.

But with the score 4-3 in Harvard's favor midway through the first quarter, the hosts went on a rampage, scoring 10 of the next 12 goals. When the spurt was over, the Crimson had a nine-goal halftime lead, on its way to a 24-16 victory, and as they say at Boston Garden, school was out.

One-Man Operation

The difference between the two squads appeared glaringly on the stat sheets. The URI attack was basically a one-man operation, in the person of Dan Perez, who accounted for one third of his team's shots on the night Several of Perez's teammates failed to test Crimson goalies Brian Graham and John Kimberly even once.

Harvard's numbers, by contrast, portrayed a well-balanced attack; Co-Captains Rich Guerra and Dave Fasi notched four and three goals, respectively, and Mike Rogers, Robby Strauss and John David tallied three times, too. The Crimson hole-setters did their job of setting up teammates for scores, as David Chao picked up five assists and Fasi four.

With Harvard comfortably out in front, the second half was taken somewhat less seriously than the first. Crimson Coach Steve Pike substituted liberally, pulling six of his seven starters by the fourth quarter. URI, with only nine players on hand, had to keep most of its starters in the pool, and managed to outscore the Crimson subs in the second half, 11-10.

Reactions to the increasingly casual level of play varied Crimson goalie Graham, consigned to scorers' table duty in the fourth quarter, called it amusingly "pathetic." The Rams' coach, on the other hand, was repeatedly heard muttering, "What a fun game!"

THE NOTEBOOK: The game ball in water polo may look like a volleyball, out it's much harder. URI goalie Mark Fisher took a shot in the face recently, and played last night with a hockey helmet.