June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Bear Stearns Cos.' lacrosse team beat Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. 11-4 last night, a rare piece of good news for workers at the now-defunct Wall Street firm.

Peter LeSueur, 25, scored four of Bear Stearns's goals, leading the team to victory at Baker Field in Manhattan three months after the firm collapsed and was forced to sell itself to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

``It's been something that we've been able to look forward to,'' said LeSueur, a former fixed-income analyst at Bear Stearns who played lacrosse at Johns Hopkins University from 2002 to 2005. ``There were a lot of question marks surrounding the firm in the last couple of months, and just for fun we were able to keep our focus on this and know that we'd be able to play together and maintain our friendships.''

There hasn't been a lot to cheer about at Bear Stearns since March, when the New York-based company averted bankruptcy only through the sale to JPMorgan for a fraction of its market value. JPMorgan is hiring less than half of Bear Stearns's 14,000 employees. Lehman has lost more than half its market value this year, including 9 percent today, the most on Wall Street, and reported a $2.8 billion second-quarter loss, the first since it went public in 1994.

Last night's game, held under the auspices of the Gotham Lacrosse league, was played as temperatures reached as high as 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) at LaGuardia Airport, breaking a 24-year-old record, according to Accuweather.com.

Sticking With Bear

Bear Stearns built a 4-0 lead in the first 20 minutes and dominated possession of the ball throughout. Lehman cut its deficit to three goals three separate times, but never got any closer. Bear Stearns's team, called ``Bear,'' finished the game with a four-goal streak.

About half the members of Bear's team are former employees, and the others work for Bank of America Corp. Many employees who have moved on to other firms since Bear Stearns's sale chose to stick with the team.

``We managed to keep the group together, for the most part,'' said Garssen Wong, 31, a former Bear Stearns vice president in credit sales who played attackman last night, scoring one goal, and organized the team. ``A lot of the guys came back, even guys who aren't with the company any more.''

Gotham's inaugural season was last year. The 2008 season, which started last week, consists of 12 teams with five regular- season games and four weeks of playoffs. Wall Street firms including Credit Suisse Group, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. also have teams in the league.

Beating the Storm

Both Lehman and Bear Stearns have players who competed for top Division I colleges, including Johns Hopkins, the University of Maryland and Loyola College. It was the first time the teams met since Bear Stearns won in double overtime last year in the tournament semifinals. Bear went on to win the championship.

Once the fifth-biggest U.S. securities firm, Bear Stearns imploded after customers and lenders fled because of speculation that the company faced a cash shortage. JPMorgan is taking over the firm's Madison Avenue headquarters and shuttering the 85- year-old company.

Lehman, the fourth-largest U.S. securities firm, raised $6 billion this week to help survive the collapse of the mortgage market. Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld is adding to the $8 billion he raised since February to quell concern that the global credit-market contraction would bring his firm down in a Bear Stearns-style collapse.

The Bear lacrosse team had little time to enjoy its victory. A storm that had been threatening a downpour all night broke over the field seconds after the final whistle.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Moore in New York at mmoore55@bloomberg.net; Josh Fineman in New York at jfineman@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 11, 2008 15:34 EDT