Harvard enters light age
Brad Bagdis has celebrated an Ivy League championship. He's savored a pair of victories over heated rival Yale. And he's earned distinction as the 134th captain in the storied history of Harvard football.
This evening under bright lights, Bagdis and his Crimson teammates will step onto the year-old FieldTurf surface at The Stadium, 104 years young, and play the first night game in Harvard history, squaring off against Brown in their Ivy opener.
"Playing under the lights, it's a completely different experience; it brings me back to high school," said Bagdis, a game-changing 6-foot-3-inch, 240-pound defensive end who prepped at Wachusett Regional in Holden. "Everyone is really excited about it.
"It gets the adrenaline pumping, just the whole atmosphere."
On Thursday night, the Crimson practiced under the glare of the lights, installed last November, for the first time and Bagdis expects a big show of support from the campus tonight. "This is really special, we're expanding the tradition; the first night game in Harvard history is very cool," he said, noting that his last game played under the lights came as a high school senior, when Wachusett, on its way to a perfect 12-0 season, hosted Central Mass. rival Marlborough.
On the field, the Crimson (0-1) need to put their focus on a Brown squad that kicked off the season with a 28-17 win over Duquesne. Harvard has ripped off seven straight wins in the series, but Crimson coach Tim Murphy pointed out, "Brown is always a very difficult game."
Bears senior tailback Dereck Knight burst out with a 33-carry, 208-yard day against Duquesne, including a 61-yard gallop on the second play of the game. Junior QB Michael Dougherty passed for three touchdowns in his first college start.
"The first game in the Ivy, it really sets the tone for the season," said Brown coach Phil Estes.
After falling at Holy Cross, 31-28, in the final minute of last week's opener, "finishing" has been the operative word around Harvard, according to Bagdis.
"This will be a very good test," he said. "We had a lot of positives coming out of last week."
One was quarterback Liam O'Hagan, who accounted for 329 yards of total offense. And tailback Cheng Ho opened with 116 yards on the ground.
Northeastern (1-2) departed Boston at 5:45 yesterday morning for its trip across the country to play the University of California Davis, a program Huskies coach Rocky Hager is well acquainted with from his days as head man at North Dakota State. Senior back Maurice Murray is coming off a 33-carry, 174-yard, one-touchdown performance in last week's 42-14 win over visiting Northwestern State . . . With next week's clash at Boston College looming, third-ranked UMass (3-0) travels to Orono to take on Maine (1-2). Last year, the Minutemen escaped with a 10-9 win in Amherst . . . Tenth-ranked New Hampshire (1-1) debuts on its new FieldTurf against Dartmouth (0-1) in the Granite Bowl . . . In the Northeast-10, Bentley is averaging 96.5 plays, 28.5 first downs, and 36 points per game in a 1-1 start. John White, a 6-4 junior from Kingston, is completing 61 percent of his passes, has distributed the ball to 10 players, and has directed Bentley to scores on nine of its last 11 possessions. This afternoon, the Falcons tangle with host Merrimack (0-2) in North Andover. "[Merrimack coach Jim] Murphy always gets his kids ready to play," said Bentley coach Peter Yetten. "This is a huge game for us." . . . It's kickoff Saturday for the NESCAC: Trinity clashes with Colby; Williams heads to Brunswick, Maine, to play Bowdoin; and Tufts welcomes back captain Adam Arsenault for its opener at Hamilton. A hard-hitting linebacker from Everett, the 6-foot, 230-pound Arsenault has not played since badly dislocating his right ankle Oct. 22, 2005, at Williams.
Craig Larson can be reached at clarson@globe.com
