The Harvard men's soccer team wanted to perform an exorcism on itself Saturday afternoon. And aided by Stephen Locker, the new high priest of Harvard soccer, it did.

With a dramatic 4-3 overtime victory over the Columbia Lions, the Crimson drove away all the bad memories its 1991 season.

How bad?

Try an 0-4-1 record in overtime.

But thanks to Captain Jason Luzak's goal with 26 seconds left in the second half of over-time, Harvard (1-0-0 overall, 1-0-0 Ivy) notched its first over time win since 1989 and provided an emotional debut for Locker.

The Lions dropped to 1-2-0 overall and 1-1-0 with the Ivy league.

Columbia may not be the powerhouse it was when it produced an 8-2-6 record last year, but Harvard has clearly improved, as Saturday's victory demonstrated.

Inspired by Locker, this year's version of the Crimson possesses a "new atmosphere of confidence," according to junior midfielder Joe Bradley.

Bradley himself had a secondary assist on the day, but the biggest producers were the freshmen: midfielders Taddeh Sheriff and Chris Wojik each picked up two assists.

Griffin Scores

Columbia's Michael Griffin opened the scoring eight minutes into the second half.

Sheriff countered with a long run down the left wing in the 74th minute, as he set up an easy put away by Harvard backer Tom Marcotullio to tie the score at 1-1.

Less than four minutes later, sheriff crossed from the right side to All-America candidate Luzak, who headed the ball past Lions' netminder James Feuerborn for a 2-1 Crimson lead.

But Columbia midfielder Kimani Robinson drilled a hard shot past senior Crimson keeper Scott Salisbury to even the score just three minutes later.

That meant overtime. Oh, the horror.