Harvard 'Sooners' Erase Army, 19-0; Cadet Errors Aid Crimson in Victory

They call themselves "the Sooners" because the sooner their scrimmages with the Varsity are over, the better.

But this does not mean that Harvard's J.V. football team would rather not play. They proved this yesterday by creating a direct proportion between the final score of Army's J.V. team and the amount of hair on the Cadet's weekly trimmed heads. They shut them out, 19-0.

The Sooners, who spend their afternoons serving as blocking and tackling dummies to help with the preparation of the Varsity, were in command of the game from the outset. Their defense yielded only three first downs to Army the entire game, and the offense, though unspectacular, was surprisingly smooth.

Harvard took advantage of four Army blunders in the game, and these accounted for all of the Crimson's scoring.

The first was a Cadet fumble which the Sooners recovered on the Army 38 yard line halfway through the first period. The Harvard offense, led by part-time Varsity quarterback Milt Holt, moved slowly ahead on the ground, and finally scored on a one yard plunge by junior Roger Hoefer.

"We would have liked to have run Hoefer a little more, but their defense was really starting to gang up in the middle, so we just did other things." coach Frank Sallitto said.

The second Cadet blunder came with just 11 seconds remaining in the first half. Army's pass coverage woefully crumbled and the Sooners moved 37 yards in one play on a Chuck Lemieux bomb. With time left for only one more play. Harvard chose to have Gary Bond boot a field goal, making the tally, Harvard 10, Army 0.

The third error came with seconds remaining in the third period, as the Sooners gladly picked up another two points thanks to a wild punt snap by the Cadet's center which flew one foot over the desperately reaching arms of the punter and bounded well off the playing field.

The final Army gift was given with only two minutes to go in the game. The Cadets, at this time attempting anything to avoid the impending shutout, called for a fake-punt-pass. Predictably though, the passer was sacked on his own four yard line. The Sooners poured final salt in Army's wounds by bolting runner Doug Quincy in for another easy Harvard score three plays later.

Head Coach Sallitto and defensive coordinator Townsend Clarke were both pleased with the dominating performance of their team, but also acknowledged Army's weakness. "We thought they (Army) would be stronger, but we were really up and just beat them. Our boys have a lot of 'esprit de corps'".