The best thing Harvard can take away from its 1998 home opener is what might have been.

On an afternoon that showcased flashes of last season's championship brilliance, the Crimson only managed to leave behind a wealth of squandered opportunities in Saturday's 21-17 loss to Lehigh.

"Lehigh is a very good football team, but we squandered a lot of opportunities today," Harvard Coach Tim Murphy said. "We just didn't pull the trigger."

The Crimson (0-3, 0-1 Ivy) managed to blow a 17-0 second quarter lead and turn the football over twice in the fourth quarter to allow Lehigh (4-0, 1-0 Patriot) the road victory.

Running in Circles

Junior tailback Chris Menick returned to the Crimson lineup after sitting out last week's 34-14 loss at Colgate with a broken thumb and a sprained ankle.

Menick--who was last year's Ivy-leading rusher with 1,267 yards--provided the Harvard running attack with its first 100-yard game of the season, breaking the century mark at 114 yards on 22 carries.

More importantly, Menick proved the bread-and-butter back on Harvard's few effective offensive series of the afternoon, rushing 11 times for 60 yards on three first-half possessions that accounted for the offense's only scores.

And Menick's gritty, straight-ahead carries through the Lehigh defensive line evoked feelings of nostalgia for a campaign one year ago when a Matt Birk-led line opened up holes like parts in the Red Sea that Menick pounded for first down after first down.

But it was the junior's loss of composure late in the afternoon that many cited as a turning point in the defeat. Trailing 21-17 with 9:23 remaining in the game, the Crimson was blessed with a first down at the Lehigh 27-yard line after junior linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski's fumble recovery.

Three plays later, Menick carried for three yards behind left guard, which should have given Harvard a third-and-eight at the Mountain Hawks' 11-yard line. But Menick took issue with strong safety Sam Brinley's aggressive tackle and popped up off the turf to deliver a shove to Brinley's face.

"I don't know what he was thinking," Brinley said. "I hit him in the hole, drove him back and threw him down, and the kid hops up and double-fists me in the face. I just walked away, tried to shake his hand and say, `Thank you for the 15 yards.'"

The unsportsmanlike conduct foul--a purely preventable mental error--forced junior quarterback Rich Linden into a third-and-23 passing situation, and his badly overthrown ball for junior flanker Terence Patterson on a crossing route fell into Brinley's hands at the Lehigh 8-yard line and was returned to midfield.

The interception--Linden's fifth of the season--snuffed out the Crimson's best scoring chance of the second half.

"I just got up and kind of lost my cool, and that was a definite mistake," Menick said." I shouldn't have done that; we were driving. I shouldn't have done that."

Cashing In, Cashing Out

Unlike last week's effort, which saw the Crimson defense generate seven turnovers--six fumbles and one interception--but fail to convert, tallying only 14 points, a takeaway and aggressive special teams play supplied the bulk of Harvard's scoring chances.

And with Linden struggling to establish a passing game, completing only 16 of 32 passes for 113 yards, short-field drives were at a premium.

The Crimson's first touchdown, a three-yard scamper by Linden on an option right, came after senior linebacker Joe Weidle's punt block gave Harvard possession at the Lehigh 22-yard line.

Senior free safety Derek Yankoff upped the Crimson advantage to 17-0 with 8:25 remaining in the second quarter with the defense's first touchdown of 1998, a 64-yard interception return off Mountain Hawks quarterback Phil Stambaugh.

Flanker Joe Falzone ran a slant left across the middle of the field, but Yankoff read the route and stepped in front of Stambaugh's pass, taking it down the right sideline for an unimpeded score.

Crunched-Time

Both defense and special teams picked up Linden and company's slack in the first half, but tired in the second and allowed two time-consuming drives that locked the Crimson offense out of possession time and opportunities to recover.

The Mountain Hawks chewed up 268 total yards in the second half to the Crimson's 101, and more importantly, controlled the football for 12:40 of the game's final 18:34.

After freshman punter Jesse Milligan boomed a 40-yard punt which was downed at the Lehigh 9-yard line with 3:34 remaining in the third, Stambaugh and tailback Ron Jean marched back downfield, going 91 yards in 16 plays over 5:54 for the game-winning touchdown with 12:40 to play.

The drive--which included a gutsy fourth-and-inches conversion at the Lehigh 35-yard line--featured Jean carrying the ball in an empty set and churning yardage off the tackles on pitchouts from Stambaugh.

"I thought the defense did a nice job in the first half," Murphy said. "But in the second we just didn't hold up our end of the bargain. We didn't play run defense."

Stambaugh also found Falzone on 17-and 26-yard crossing patterns and junior flanker Kody Fedorcha on a 17-yard wide receiver screen--a route he had employed earlier in the afternoon--during the march.

The Crimson had one final crack at the lead late in the quarter, taking the ball at its own 20-yard line off a touchback with 6:25 to play.

A painfully errant Linden, however, fired three straight incomplete passes on short routes before Milligan was forced to punt again. The "drive" took just 29 seconds, and allowed Lehigh to bury the Harvard defense with another grinding sequence, this time 72 yards on 14 plays in 5:11.

Jean did the deed a second time from largely the same set, roughing up a worn defensive line for 50 yards on eight carries. Lehigh's turnover on downs with 0:45 to play proved a Pyrrhic victory.

"I can't believe we gave up so many yards," Kacyvenski said. "They have a lot of weapons. It wasn't huge, huge things, it was small things that added up."

Alive and Kicking

Milligan, who replaced injured junior Mike Giampaolo at punter, was named the Ivy League's Rookie of the Week for his efforts.

Milligan punted six times for an average of 39.2 yards per kick, landing three inside the Lehigh 20. His day was a significant improvement over the work of junior John Patton, who had averaged 32.6 yards per punt over the season's first two games.

Patton, a reserve for two seasons, did kick the first field goal of his collegiate career, a 33-yarder with 6:15 to play in the first quarter.