Soph Soccer Star Peter Bogovich Begins Varsity Career in Fine Form

When Chris Ohiri launched his sensational Harvard soccer career in 1961 by scoring five goals against Tufts, Peter Bogovich was playing soccer for "Malinska," a team in his native Yugoslavia.

Seven years later--September 25, 1968, to be exact--Bogovich duplicated Ohiri's feat by scoring five goals against Tufts in his first varsity game. Harvard soccer fans are now wondering if Bogovich, a center forward like Ohiri, can continue to match the latter's successes.

The Harvard record of 17 goals in a season that Ohiri set in 1961 is still standing today, but if "Bogo" keeps on peppering the goals of Crimson opponents, it will not be intact much longer. Bogovich tallied 12 times in the seven games preceding yesterday's Dartmouth tilt, and there are four contests yet to go.

Good Left Foot

Varsity Coach Brue Munro emphasizes that Bogovich has not yet proved himself against teams as tough as the Ivy League squads the booters will be facing the rest of this season. But Munro concedes that "he has a good left foot, is a good ball-handler, and sets up his teammates very well--the mark of a good center forward."

"He keeps the defense guessing," Munro said. "One time he'll draw defenders to him and then fool them by passing off to a teammate; the next time they will stay back, expecting a pass, and he'll shoot," he said.

Munro added that Bogovich "is turning into more of a team player; he is beginning to shoot less often and pass more." And this is one factor accounting for the drop in Bogovich's scoring output since the opener against Tufts.

Bogovich enjoyed an exceptional freshman season here last year, scoring 18 goals to join Solomon Gomez in sparking the Yardlings to a 9-0-1 record.

Soccer has been a lifelong preoccupation with Bogovich. He began playing in Yugoslavia at the age of six. Playing mostly defense in his early years, he started as a fullback and then moved to goalic.

After he came to the United States in 1962, Bogovich played both for his high school in New York City and for "Dalmatian," a Yugoslavian team in a local German-American league.

It was with Dalmatian that Bogovich finally got a chance to show what he could do on offense. The team was undermanned on the attack, and happily for Harvard, Bogo was switched to the front line. His powerful kicking and ball-controlling ability have kept him there ever since.

He has continued to play for Dalmatian each year since. He flew to New York almost every weekend to join the team after the Harvard freshman season ended last year, and he plans to do the same at the close of this year's varsity competition.

All-State

In addition to playing for Dalmatian, Bogovich led his high school team to the city championship his junior and senior years, and was named to the all-state team as a senior.

Bogovich's high school coach gave him the idea to apply to college, and, Bogovich says, "I figured I might as well try for the best." Harvard sent word that it would accept him if he spent a year brushing up on his English and arranged for him to be enrolled in Deerfield Academy for this purpose in 1966.

Bogovich led Deerfield to the New England soccer championship and improved his English enough during the year to enable him to come here last fall. To the coaches and fans who have been watching him, Bogo's performance on the soccer field speaks clearly enough.