Gomez Breaks Tie Harvard Defeats Big Red Booters

The Crimson soccer team won its fourth consecutive game of the season against Cornell Saturday morning when, with 55 seconds remaining in the final quarter, Solomon Gomez kicked in his own rebound to make the score 2-1.

Although the Crimson has won all its games this season, none have been easy victories. The new 4-4-2 formation has not unleashed any more power this year, but it has been stingy on defense, allowing the opposition only one goal a game.

After coming off a 2-2 tie against Penn the week before, the Big Red took the field ready to maul the Crimson. But for the first time this season, the Crimson opened the game with a coordinated, powerful attack.

Five minutes into the first quarter, Harvard scored its first goal, and it seemed that the Crimson was on its way to an easy victory. Charlie Thomas took a shot on the Cornell goalie, who stopped it, but could not keep hold of it. Thomas drove in the stray ball for the first tally.

After the goal. Harvard scored very quickly. Its defense looked especially lax, and two minutes after Thomas' goal, Cornell surprised the Crimson fullbacks and Billy Meyers, the goalie, with a goal of its own. Meyers reacted too slowly to a ball that floated over his head, and it tied the score at 1-1.

Both teams began to play defensive soccer after the Big Red tally. The Harvard line kept trying to set up plays with short passes only to have the strong Cornell fullbacks break them up. Play was rough, and the Big Red could not put together a sustained drive against the Harvard defense.

The half ended, and the snow flurries began to fall. During the break, Harvard coach Bruce Munro changed the strategy of the game. "I want you to begin to take shots on the goalie every change you get," Munro told his players, "it may take 30 shots before we score one goal on this Cornell team."

Harvard Dominant

With coach Munro's directions in mind, the Crimson soccer team began to move as it had done in the early part of the first quarter. Harvard dominated the third quarter, keeping the ball close to the Cornell net. The Big Red fullbacks kept turning away the attack, and the balls that got past the fullback line were either deflected or stopped cold by the Cornell goalie. The fullbacks for Cornell started to tire, however, and the fullback covering the Crimson's Gomez was beginning to give the Gambian star too much running room.

The teams exchanged sides for the fourth quarter, but Cornell still found it difficult to get its attack moving. Crimson players were finding themselves covered less and less. Several shots barely missed going in for goals, while the Cornell goalie continued to play a magnificent game.

With 55 seconds left in the game. Gomez broke free from his defender and took a hard shot on goal. The Big Red goalie stopped it, but his cold hands could not keep hold of it, and the ball slipped out of his reach. Gomez, uncovered, was there to kick it in. It had taken Harvard nearly 30 shots to score the winning goal.