Football Team Falls to Columbia

In the third period of Saturday's football game, Harvard marched 70 yards for a touchdown to cut Columbia's lead to a mere six points. Coach John Yovicsin, backed by thousands of Harvard fans who suddenly forgot all about the chilly 40-degree weather, began shouting, "C'mon, we can do it! Keep fighting! We can do it!"

And as the Crimson stifled three subsequent drives by the Lions, it looked like Harvard was going to come back.

But then, with a third-and-three situation on its own 20 yard line in the fourth quarter, Harvard came up with its second boner of the day--a pitchout which was intercepted by Columbia on the 18. Seven plays later, with only 11 seconds remaining in the game, coach Buff Donelli's Lions pushed the ball over to make the final score 26 to 14. Quickly, the 11,000 fans who had received an extra bonus--a riot at halftime over an attempted Columbia attack on the mammoth Harvard drum--settled back and accepted what they had expected going into the Stadium. A Columbia victory.

After the game, Yovicsin pointed out a major difference between the two teams which was a significant factor in the destiny of the game: "Columbia didn't give us any outright gifts. They kept good possession of the ball, and never threw it away. They played a consistent game, and didn't even fumble once."

Indirectly, he was referring to Harvard's two fatal mistakes--the intercepted pitchout and a high pass from center on a fourth-down punt play in the second quarter--which set up Columbia's second and fourth touchdowns. Yovicsin was impatient and visibly irked over these plays; he couldn't pass them off as "that's the breaks," for they were identical to the two blatant errors in the Lehigh game which also led to touchdowns.

Sure, a lot of Harvard fans were satisfield with the team's performance, and quite rightly, for there were some impressive moments for the Crimson Saturday. And it's easy to say, as many do, "If only we hadn't given them the ball those two times..." and "If only Rick Beizer had held onto the pass he almost intercepted in the first quarter with 75 yards of free turf ahead of him and four teammates nearby..."

But excusing the team on hypothetical considerations is kidding oneself, and Yovicsin knows it. You couldn't help noticing it in his tone in the post-game press conference. Harvard has lost three of its four games, and after so many mistakes, it's time to quit making excuses.

Columbia deserved to win the game. Tom Vasell, probably the best quarterback in the Ivy League, gave the Crimson its first real test against a passing attack, and came through creditably, completing four aerials for 56 yards.

More important than Vasell's passing attack, however, were the effective, well-balanced running performances of halfbacks Tom Haggerty and Russ Warren. With the left end set out from the line about five yards, Columbia sent right half Warren slicing off left tackle whenever it needed three or four yards--even on fourth down situations in its own territory, when most teams would have punted--and called on left half Haggerty on a massive sweep play around right end whenever it wanted longer yardage.

Haggerty led the Lions' attack with 83 yards in 19 attempts for a 4.4 average. Warren rushed for 79 yards, and fullback Tom O'Connor, good up the middle, added 74 more. Haggerty scored twice; Warren and O'Connor added the other two TD's.

Columbia Outrushes Crimson

Columbia more than doubled the rushing of the Crimson, piling up 244 yards to Harvard's 121. The Lions made 20 first downs, as opposed to the Crimson's nine.

Twenty-seven points were scored in the second quarter. Columbia set off on a 62-yard drive for the first TD at the end of the first quarter, moving with the variety of Vasell passes, Haggerty sweeps, Warren slants, and O'Connor bucks up the middle. On this drive, Vasell completed passes for 11 and 12 yards, and Haggerty racked up five to ten yards at a crack around right end. The TD came at 0:35 of the second quarter when O'Connor slanted off right tackle from the six. The run for two points failed.

Columbia then kicked off to the Crimson, and halfback Billy Taylor, who turned in the best performance of his college career Saturday, returned the ball to the 30. Quarterback Mike Bassett, working at times with a new unbalanced-line attack, could not move the club, and on fourth down Taylor went back for the punt. Then came the fatal high pass from center, and Columbia took over on the Harvard 19. On the fourth play, Haggerty ran the ball nine yards off right tackle untouched for the Lions' second TD. Again, the PAT attempt failed.

On the kickoff which followed, Hank Hatch--appearing in his first game after a long bout with mononucleosis--took the ball on the 12 yard line, bounced off one defender, took off to his left, got a great block from Bill Grana, and sprinted to the Columbia 22 in a thrilling 66-yarder broken up by O'Connor. Hatch, who is usually one of Harvard's fastest men, ran out of gas. "If he had been in shape, he would have scored," Yovicsin said.

Humenuk Pass Scores

Second-string quarterback Bill Humenuk took over the reins, and moved the team to the 12 yard line, where it sat until a fourth and 11 situation. In one of the outstanding plays of the game, Humenuk dropped back and threw a high pass which slowly dropped into the end zone.

As the ball came down, Columbia defender Herb Gerstein--a more but mighty 160 pounds--leaped up. Both ball and Gerstein converged on Harvard captain and end Pete Hart, who, to the amazement of everybody, came out with the ball in an impossible catch. Dave Ward made the conversion to make the score 12 to 7 and give Harvard new hope. (Hart made two determined catches Saturday.)

After the Crimson's kickoff, Columbia set off on its third TD drive--69 yards in 13 plays. In this drive, Vasell threw two passes, one after the other, on third and first down situations for 12 and 20 yards. Warren took the ball over from the three, and O'Connor passed to him in the end zone for two points after. That made the score 20 to 7, at the end of the first half.

On Harvard's comeback drive in the third quarter, halfback Chuck Reed, who had broken up Columbia's initial series of the game by intercepting a Vasell pass in the end zone, moved the ball 35 yards from the Harvard 30 to the Columbia 35 on the first play. Taylor and fullback Grana carried the load for the rest of the way until Taylor pushed the ball over from the one yard line at 9:14. The 70-yard drive was covered in 12 plays.

Late in the fourth quarter, with third and three, Bassett tried an option off right tackle in which came the fatal pitchout intercepted by Warren to give the Lions the ball on the Harvard 13. Haggerty ran the ball over from the two yard line to conclude the subsequent drive which sealed the final score, 26 to 14.

In the losing effort, Taylor and Reed stood out on offense for the Crimson, running for 49 and 46 yards, respectively, to lead the team. Guard Bill Swinford stood out on both offense and defense, in one of the most relentless jobs of hustle and fight a lineman could turn out in any league.JOHN YOVICSIN, last year.