The Harvard men's water polo team brought plenty of offense back to New England after its weekend excursion to California, and the Crimson unpacked its baggage last night at MIT, the trade school down the river.

Harvard (12-10, 9-4 CWPA) exploded for a 14-8 win over MIT at Alumni Pool.

"We came out trying to shoot a lot," sophomore two-meter man Sean Cheng said. "Coach told us not to run set plays and just light it up from the field tonight, so that's what we did."

Cheng was one of the Crimson swimmers who padded his stats tonight. He was fouled seven meters away from the goal, and he converted the ensuing penalty shot by launching the ball into the corner of the goal.

"It was a pretty shot that barred in," Cheng said.

Sophomore driver Michael Crosby gave Harvard the early lead by scoring the first two goals of the game in the first quarter. His first shot came on the counterattack when he beat his defender down the water for an uncontested shot.

The Crimson broke down the Engineer defense for Crosby's second score. He received the ball at the two-meter position and powered his way around the defense for another shot from point-blank range.

"Coach told us to stop thinking and shoot more, and people took his advice to heart tonight," Crosby said. "There were a lot of people scoring and we racked up a lot of goals on the scoreboard, which is always fun."

Crosby's two goals paced the Crimson, along with a pair of scores from sophomore driver Seth Cassel. For the rest of the evening, Harvard spread the wealth and let everyone reel off shots against the Engineer defense.

But last night's contest was just another warm-up game for the Northern Division Championships, which Harvard will host starting Oct. 30.

The Crimson have the fifth seed in the tournament, which pits them against Ivy League rival Brown in a heavily-anticipated showdown. The Bears have the fourth seed in the tournament.

"We just wanted to get past MIT and get home," captain Robinson Jacobs said. "We went to MIT looking to be loose and score a lot, but this was not an important game. Our main focus is the Brown game."

If Harvard upsets Brown and reaches the top four at Northerns, the Crimson will advance to Annapolis for the Eastern Championships at Navy on Nov. 12 and 13.

Before the postseason begins, however, Harvard has one more non-conference game tomorrow night against Boston College at 7:30 p.m. at Blodgett Pool.