RUGBY

The Harvard rugby club found the old scoring punch and roared past the Columbia Lions, 28-4, Saturday in New York.

The victory broke a three-game Crimson losing streak and upped the squad's record to 3-5 on the season.

"We're talking the middle of October since we last won," Co-Captain Jon Israel said, referring to the ruggers 31-6, earlier-season rout of Babson.

Harvard stormed to a 14-0 halftime lead. Chris North broke the scoreless play 13 minutes into the contest when he bowled over several defenders for a try. Nathan Koenig converted the kick to put the Crimson ahead 6-0.

Twenty minutes later, Chris Arbery scored for the Crimson. After a long return of a Lion kick, the two teams fought for the ball in a ruck. From the ruck, Arbery caught a pass and outran the Lions for a try.

"It was a good supporting flurry on the kick return," Harvard Coach Martyn Kingston said. "It indicated the type of good supporting play we had."

With a minute to play in the first half, Isreal dashed 10 yards for a try after picking up a loose ball in a scramble.

The Crimson continued to dominate play in the second half. Fullback Koenig came into the line, grabbed the ball, and ran it in for a score. He also converted the kick to increase the Crimson lead to 20-0.

Jon Leydon and LaRaja closed out Harvard's scoring when Leydon scored on a blocked kick and LaRaja on a short run.

Columbia tallied with 10 seconds remaining to ruin the ruggers' shutout bid--marking the third time this season an opponent has foiled a Crimson shutout bid with a late-game score.

The B-side also prevailed, 21-0, over Columbia, as freshmen Chris Liles scored 17 points and Dave Beardsley added a try.

While the men blew away the Lions, Radcliffe did not fare as well, losing to arch-rival Dartmouth, 22-0.

Dartmouth squeaked past the Black and White twice last season, including an 8-4 sudden-death overtime thriller in the Ivy League Championship.

Saturday's contest was never in doubt, as Radcliffe (now 3-4) was held scoreless.