Booters Beat Owls, Face Brown Today

Fresh from an impressive 5-0 first round victory over Southern Connecticut, Harvard's soccer team entertains an improved Brown squad in the final game of the NCAA's New England division playoffs at 1 p.m. on the Business School Field.

The Crimson, ranked number one in New England with an 11-1 mark, defeated the Bruins, 4-1, less than two weeks ago. Since that game Brown's attack is finally executing up to preseason notices and the defensive lapses which have plagued Bruno throughout the campaign have been prepared down.

Following Harvard, in its last two games Brown has demolished Columbia, 6-4, and surprisingly outgunned a talented Bridgeport squad, which was rated second in New England, 4-1. This still leaves the Bruins with a deceptively weak 7-5-2 record.

"Against Bridgeport, Brown penetrated very quickly and very well. They moved the ball to Henry Jessup and Dick Lay on the wings with well controlled short passes, and once these guys get room to operate they're in on top of you and its all over," freshman coach Dana Getchall, who scouted the game, said.

"Brown is, as usual, deadly on corner kicks and against Bridgeport they looked as good as any team I've seen come out of Providence, as far as team play is concerned," Getchall noted.

This isn't the first time Harvard squads have faced the Bruins in the NCAA playoffs after already downing them during the regular season. But experience as fresh as last year has taught the Crimson that it must play its best ball-control game if it expects to win. Last year, after blasting Brown in a regular season contest. Harvard squeezed out a 1-0 win in the NCAA's.

"This year our main problem is our lack of a true scoring punch," Clifford Stevenson, coach of the Ivy League's fourth place Bruins, said after the Harvard game. "In several of the games we've lost this season, we out-shot and definitely outplayed our opponents."

Both teams have no real injuries to hamper their attacks today and if the Bruins' scoring punch continues to improve as it did during the last two games. Brown could be at its peak.

"They outhustled Bridgeport," Getchall said. "I could see it was a new season for Brown. They had nothing to lose. Somebody was offering a free week in Miami (site of the NCAA finals) and well, you know, its something to look forward to."