One freshman who didn't get to play in the Brown game was Nick Branca, who had been awarded the coveted "'Shmen of the Year" title Friday night.

Branca proved that he deserved the honor by scoring five goals while playing the entire Dartmouth game. Until Scherrer's performance, Branca's was the Crimson's highest individual scoring output of the season.

Branca was rewarded for his success by being rested for the bulk of the next two matches.

"I told you I should play more," Branca joked to his teammates after the Dartmouth game. "Yeah, you're a scoring machine," they responded.

Fellow scoring machine Scherrer was pleased with his performance because it meant he was "finally getting my game under control. I'd been in a slump earlier in the season, and I'm beginning to play better."

The Crimson will need solid performances from every player next weekend at the New England Championships in Providence. Only the top two teams from that tournament earn the right to go to Easterns, and the Crimson is seeded third, behind Brown and UMass. The anticipated semi-final match against the Minutemen will be the rubber game of the season for these teams, as they have traded 6-5 victories thus far.

THE NOTEBOOK: Branca was the most easily recognizable player in the pool--the team celebrated his 'Shmen award by coloring his chest with permanent red, blue, and green markers....The oldest player in the pool was a 27-year old Dartmouth medical school student. The Big Green has a "club team," making anybody eligible to play for them. His wife and baby sat in the stands....The crowd of 50 was Harvard's biggest and noisiest of the season.