NEW YORK--If nothing else, the Harvard men's soccer team can take solace in the fact that it outscored the defending Ivy League champions.

On a muggy Saturday afternoon in upper Manhattan, the Crimson's 2-1 loss to Columbia put it one point ahead of its football brethren, who ended up on the short end of a 24-0 decision in its season opener. HARVARD1 COLUMBIA  2

Despite a second-half rush which staved off the shutout and provided the squad's first goal of 1998, Harvard (0-2-1, 0-1 Ivy) remained winless as the Lions (2-2-0, 1-0) snapped a three-game losing streak against the Crimson.

"I was disappointed because we didn't play as hard as we are capable of playing," said Harvard Coach Steve Locker. "I thought we created a lot of chances and caught some bad bounces, but we didn't have very strong desire."

Despite an admittedly lackluster first half, the Crimson hung with last season's fourth-place Ivy finishers for almost 45 minutes, very nearly replicating its 0-0 affair with Central Connecticut State earlier in the week.

But just as the Crimson began to relish the idea of escaping into the intermission with a scoreless tie, a Columbia attack broke through the Harvard defensive front to stake a 1-0 lead in the 43rd minute.

Senior back Anthony Balsamo put a high ball into the Harvard box for senior midfielder Rino Matarazzo, who fanned on an attempted header from 10 feet out.

As the Crimson backs failed to clear out, the ball bounded across the box to the weak side, where freshman Jon Mycroft collected it and beat Crimson goalie Jordan Dupuis in the far corner.

That score sapped what little momentum Harvard had amassed, and unsurprisingly the Crimson opened up the second half by coughing up a preventable goal which put the game out of reach.

Columbia--which had rushed the Crimson midfield with relative ease in the second stanza--upped the ante to 2-0 when captain Greg Smalling drove a groundball through traffic in the box from 20 feet out in the 47th minute.

Matarazzo--an honorable mention All-Ivy last season--started the sequence by sending a cross to the left side, where the defense knocked down a Columbia shot. The rebound, however, deflected back out where Smalling was able to put a strong right foot on it.

Smalling's shot skipped through a crowd of Crimson jerseys to net, where Dupuis was able to dive to his left side and get his hands on the ball, but it trickled through for the clincher.

"We lost momentum in the first half, and then we gave up a quick goal in the second," Locker said. "We had guys standing around in the box and not clearing the ball."

The Lions then switched to a conservative prevent-style defense, contracting its defensive unit around the box while allowing the Crimson to assume control of the midfield.

But true to form, Harvard could not finish on several quality chances, until sophomore midfielder Ryan Kelly finally put the Crimson on the board better than 300 minutes into the season.