Games coming at the beginning of a sports season are, to a certain extent, about creating or sustaining momentum.

While every win or loss counts in the standings, far more important early on is the self-esteem and expectations a team creates for itself, for they will stay wit the team throughout the season .

With that in mind, it's not hard to see why the Harvard men's lacrosse team is so giddy about its 1-7 win over Army on Saturday

The team had opened its season the week before the game with a lack-luster 12-11 overtime loss to a mediocre Boston College tam, a season-opening confidence-deflater if ever there was one.

But in Saturday's game, the team came alive, putting together a well -rounded effort against the tenth-rated team in the country.

"It was the difference between night and day," junior Mike Eckert said. "I don't really know what happened at Boston College--we were just completely out of it. But Saturday, we played really well."

"We totally dominated it," sophomore Chris Wojcik said of the Army game." They were a tough team--like a lot of the service academies--but we led from beginning until end.

The Crimson domination was bot offensive and defensive.

On offense, the team displayed a patience in shot selection that was missing in the Boston College game and moved the ball smoothly up the field with an almost-hitchless transition offense.

"We're a pretty close team, and after the BC game we pretty disgusted with our offense," Captain Mike Porter said. "So we got together, talked about working together on the field better and being patient, and we worked on it in practice. It really seemed to work."

The Crimson was also solid defensively, as it stopped repeated Army attempts at penetration to maintain the lead throughout the Game.

"Defensively we did awesome," Eckert said. "Everyone stepped up for us."

The Crimson got off a quick 2-0 lead in the contest, and eventually extended it to 4-1.

Army, however, refused to roll over, and battled back to within two, 7-5, at halftime.

"They gave us a scare a couple of times," Porter said. "They were not about to give up-- a typical characteristic of Army team. At halftime we just talked about how we had to look at the game like we were behind, not just hold on,"

Harvard did just that in the second half. The Crimson allowed the Cadets only two points in the second period to eventually win by four.

"It was a good game for us from beginning until end," Porter said. "It makes us feel a lot better about how things are going."

The Army confidence-boost will be needed this Saturday when the Crimson battle Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

In this week's national rankings, the Crimson are ranked 19th, while the Quakers are ranked 18th.

That fact, along with Penn's general proficiency in league play the last few seasons, have the Crimson looking at the Penn game as one of the most important of the season.

"This game will really give us an idea of where we are going into the main part of league play," Wojcik said. "It's also always a big game against Penn--they usually seem to be about where we are in the standings."

The following Saturday after the Penn game, the Crimson will make a Spring Break trip to Durham, NC, to take ninth-rated Duke.

"The Duke game will be a great opportunity to go against a great program," Wojcik said. "We'll need everything we've got to pull it off, though ."

"Things are going great, real great right now," he added. "We're working as well as we've ever worked together, and we're excited about seeing how far we can go ."