Even on the nastiest New England day, there's no place like home.

The Harvard men's lacrosse team braved the elements to defend its home ground yesterday, posting its first win of the season in a 12-6 rout of Boston College at Ohiri Field.

The Crimson (1-2) broke an early 1-1 tie with three quick goals at the end of the second period, and then rode out a wild second half--in which the teams combined to score 13 times--to outlast the Eagles (1-2), outshooting them 43-34. HARVARD  12 Boston College  6

Harvard had dropped a discouraging 7-6 decision to Hobart last Sunday and suffered a 13-5 blowout at Fairfield in its season opener.

Sophomore attackman Dana Sprong scored a game-high four goals, including three in the fourth quarter, to boost his team-leading total to nine.

Sophomore midfielder Roger Buttles contributed two goals and an assist and now has seven points on the season.

Harvard junior goalie Keith Cynar had a relatively light afternoon, making 16 saves and improving to 1-2 for the year.

The Crimson struggled early on to find an offensive rhythm.

It netted only one goal in the first period, that from freshman attackman Colin Leary, who notched his first collegiate score with 10:53 remaining in the game.

Leary had assisted on a goal in the Hobart loss.

But B.C.'s offensive funk far outlived the Crimson's, and only attackman Michael Adair's score with 29 seconds remaining in the first quarter prevented the Eagles from suffering a scoreless first half.

Adair scored when he rolled out from behind the cage and flipped a waist-level shot past Cynar.

He led the Eagles with three goals on the afternoon.

After the Crimson went up 2-1 on the first of three man-up goals on the afternoon, sophomore Tripp Callan scored the first of his two goals on the afternoon to up the lead to 3-1.

Callan took freshman James Christian's pass from behind the net on the left side and beat B.C. senior goalie Anthony Cirri in the bottom right corner of the net.