Mark Messier visits Bright Hockey Center, new helmets for Crimson

Last year, Brendan Shanahan skated with the Crimson for several days as he prepared to sign with the New Jersey Devils midway through the NHL season.

This year, six-time Stanley Cup winner Mark Messier dropped by the Bright Hockey Center in the preseason with a different agenda in mind. Friday afternoon, Messier visited the Bright with an unusual delivery.

Men's Soccer rising on national scene

Another winning weekend for the Harvard men's soccer team, and another impressive haul of national attention for the undefeated Crimson.

On Saturday afternoon, the Crimson trekked to southern Connecticut and defeated Fairfield 4-1 behind senior striker Andre Akpan's two tallies and an assist. That win moves them to 5-0 on the season and the #6 ranking in the just-released College Soccer News poll, up a whopping six spots from last week.

This coming week will provide two more tough road tests, with a match at the University of New Hampshire (2-3-1) on Wednesday and a Saturday afternoon tilt on Tobacco Road against #3 Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons (3-1-1) are coming off a 1-0 loss to Virginia, so expect a taut game between the Crimson and the Deacons in Winston-Salem.

Akpan earned National Player of the Week honors from Top Drawer Soccer for his five-point performance against the Stags, and now stands just six goals shy of Harvard's all-time goal mark. Expect him to narrow that gap against UNH, and if he puts in a strong performance against Wake Forest, Akpan (six goals, four assists in five games) could be considered the early front-runner for the Hermann Trophy.

Reminder- Sportstalk at 1pm Today

Just a quick reminder that Crimson Sportstalk is on today at 1pm on 95.3FM WHRB and whrb.org.

Alasdair Wilkins will be in the booth to give us some perspective from yesterday's 27-20 loss against a very tough non-conference opponent for the football team.

Tom Brennan will sit down to discuss Harvard's 5-0 men's soccer team.

We'll have the highlights from the postgame interviews from Harvard and Holy Cross.

And of course, we'll have Harvard Headlines recapping the past week's action.

It's all at 1pm on WHRB.

Football Season Kicks-Off Tomorrow

Ten Thousand Men of Harvard Lyrics

Note- My goal is to include a video that relates to the Harvard game being played each week- for the season opener, I thought I could do no wrong with linking to a video with the lyrics of Ten Thousand Men of Harvard.

    Harvard football is here as the #25 Crimson travel across the state to face the #23 Holy Cross Crusaders.

    Not much more needs to be said here on the blog than that- Alasdair and I talked about the game a little last Sunday, and our pregame crew will have all the big news and views at 12:30pm.

So with all that in mind, let's go around the Ivy League

Bucknell at Cornell

The Bisons enter this game 1-1, after losing by five points to Duquense on the road 24-19 before beating Robert Morris at home 26-23. Marcello Trig has 320 yards and 3 touchdowns on the year coming into the game. For his career, he has 3,505 yards and 28 touchdowns.

Yale at Georgetown

Georgetown is 0-2 and 0-2 in the conference after losing 20-7 and 28-3 to two Harvard opponents, Holy Cross and Lafayette. Yale coach Tom Williams will be making his Yale debut.

Colgate at Dartmouth

Colgate is sitting at 2-0 on the year after wins against Monmouth and Stony Brook. Both wins came at home. Dartmouth, coming off a 0-10 campaign last year, lost by two touchdowns at Colgate last year.

Citadel at Princeton

Citadel is 0-1 on the year, a 40-6 loss, but that doesn't tell anyone much, as it was a loss to a ranked Division I-A opponent, North Carolina. The Citadel had 39 passing attempts for 123 yards and 20 rushing attempts for 30 yards in their last effort.

Columbia at Fordham

It's a battle of New York as the Lions attempt to invade Jack Coffey Field in the Bronx to defeat the Fordham Rams. Fordham is 0-1 after losing to another set of Rams, Rhode Island, 41-28 two weeks ago.

Brown at Stony Brook

Stony Brook is 0-2 on the year after losing to Hofstra and Colgate in their opening games. This will be the home opener for the Big South team. Sophomore running back Edwin Gowins is set to break the 1500 yard mark in his career.

Villanova at Pennsylvania

The last time Villanova (2-0) traveled to an in-state opponent was to take on the Temple Owls of Division I-A in the inaugural Mayor's Cup, and Villanova emerged with an upset 27-24. After beating Harvard opponent Lehigh at home last week, 38-17, the Wildcats will be looking to move to 3-0 on the year against in-state teams.

Other Harvard Opponents

Lafayette (1-0, 1-0) take on the Liberty Flames (1-1, 0-0). Liberty's loss came to Division I-A opponent West Virginia 33-20, and they beat North Carolina Central last week 35-10.