Penn Ruins Soccer Team's No-Loss Record, 2-0; Harvard Drops to 4th Place in League Standings

The injury-ridden Harvard varsity soccer team suffered its first defeat of the season Saturday, losing to an aggressive Penn team, 2-0, at Harvard

Penn's victory knocked Harvard out of a four way tie for first place in the Ivy League standings and dropped its record to 5-1-3 overall and 1-1-2 in Ivy competition. Harvard is now tied for fourth place with Cornell, behind League-leading Brown and Penn and second place Columbia.

Illness

Illnesses sapped the Crimson's strength for Saturday's game. Jaime Vargas, Richie Hardy, Scott Robertson, and Pete Bogovich all played with minor ailments, and the team never mustered enough consistency or drive to combat the hustling Quakers.

Coach Bruce Munro did not start linkman Hardy, who has been ailing with a strep throat, and Penn controlled the midfield play from the beginning of the contest.

"You can't play the 4-2-4 without the linkmen," Munro said later. "Without them we're just a bunch of guys running around the field."

Harvard's attack picked up in the second period when Hardy entered the game, but in the first period Penn repeatedly intercepted Harvard passes, outpositioning the Crimson linemen and disrupting their attack.

In the third period a mix-up in signals between Bezo Cutler and goalie Richie Locksley gave Penn a bizarre goal, its first of two third period scores.

Cutler was chasing a long kick down the left side of the field with Penn wing Jeff Rosenglick when Locksley seemed to come out after the ball. Rosenglick reached the ball first and managed to float a shot that bounced over Locksley's head into the untended net.

Five minutes later Penn capitalized on a penalty shot to ice the game. Wing Bruno Vogt lined a hard shot shot off the hands of fullback Bill Brock in a scramble in front of the goal for a penalty shot. The ball slipped past Locksley to give Penn the two goal lead which they never relinquished.

"The penalty kick killed us," Munro said. "It's tough to overcome a two goal lead against a team like that in the last period."

Pete Bogovich, who left the game with a slight limp in the final period, and Solomon Gomez did threaten to score in the final period. Bogovich dribbled by four defenders into scoring range, but his shot was wide of the goal. Gomez's scoring threat was stopped by the referee's whistle for pushing in front of the net.

A bright spot in the loss was the defensive play by Locksley and fullback Hilary Worthen. Worthen, who prevented a goal in the first period, joined Locksley in holding back the barrage of Penn shots.