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."