Soccer Varsity Rates Underdog In Last Home Game for Seniors

The six seniors on today's starting soccer lineup play their last home game of what has been for them a very mediocre last season at Harvard, against a decidedly favored Princeton squad.

Starting insides Tom Bernheim and Captain Jim Shue, right wing Ken McIntosh, and halfbacks John Felstiner, Tony Oberschall, and Marsh Schwartz, with five other teammates, face a Princeton team which has crushed all opposition so far, scoring 18 goals in Ivy League competition, to their opponents' three.

Princeton reportedly features a hard-driving, entirely offensive forward line, tireless halfbacks, immovable fullbacks, and a goalie who is fast across the nets. Penn, which beat Harvard last Saturday 6 to 2, lost to Princeton 3 to 1. Brown beat Penn 3 to 2, and Princeton beat Brown 8 to 0.

Harvard's hope rests on possibilities. One, that Princeton, like Harvard against underdog Penn last week, will loose its grip long enough to let in a few too many goals. The second, and slightly more probable possibility, is that Harvard may manage to pull together for the afternoon to play an entire game of the first-class soccer they have exhibited occasionally, notably against Dartmouth.

Captain Jim Shue said the fate of the team in this season's games has rested with the halfback line. Team success has fluctuated markedly with the up and down quality of halfback play, sometimes superb, but too often very bad. Shue said he considers halfbacks "the key to success in soccer, because they're both the defensive and offensive machine of the team."

He said that forwards cannot sustain sharp, driving attacks without halfback support, nor can fullbacks adequately protect a goalie without the services of halfbacks as the first line of defense against an opposing forward line.

Shue said he felt that, in spite of Princeton's highly-rated power, the game would be a close one. Kickoff time is 10:30 a.m., at the Business School Field.