Powerful Crimson Offense Bombs Columbia, 57-0

The surprisingly tough Crimson football team won its third straight game Saturday afternoon, crushing Columbia, 57-0, at Harvard Stadium.

Senior quarterback Jim Stoeckel led the scoring parade that tied the record for the most points scored against an Ivy League opponent. He ran for two touchdowns and completed six of only eight passing attempts for 109 yards and two more scores.

Stingy

Harvard's stingy defense, number one in the nation's college ranks, held the Lions to 38 yards total offense and earned its second shutout in two weeks.

Head coach Joe Restic was "very surprised at the outcome. Columbia is a real tough team defensively. They've had four shutouts in their last ten games. They got a couple of bad breaks and fell apart when the breaks went against them. They started pressing twice as hard and nothing would go right for them."

Columbia's first bad break came when they lost the coin toss. The Lions kicked off to the Crimson and Stoeckel marched the Crimson downfield on the first of five sustained scoring drives. Junior halfbacks Alky Tsitsos and Ed Cronin ate up big chunks of yardage and Stoeckel capped the 14-play, 75-yard series with a one-yard sneak into the Columbia end zone. Kicker Bruce Tetirick added the first extra point.

Tsitsos was the game's leading rusher, picking up 44 yards in 9 rushes. Stoeckel, who kept the ball several times on the option, was the second leading ground gainer with 31 yards in 7 carries.

Mauled Lions

The rest of the first quarter was a scoreless standoff. Then Harvard exploded for 29 points in the second quarter and knocked all the fight out of the badly mauled Lions. The only inducement for the 25,000 Employee Day fans to watch the rest of the game was to see if Harvard could break the scoring record set by Cornell in 1964 against an earlier version of the Columbia football team.

Tsitsos made the score 13-0 when he capped the second Crimson scoring drive with a 6-yard blast off left tackle four minutes into the second quarter. Tetirick's conversion attempt hit the right goal post and caromed off.

Five minutes later a Crimson drive stalled and Stoeckel boomed a punt from the Columbia 42 that rolled out of bounds at the Columbia one.

Four plays later Columbia punted from its three. Joe Sciolla fielded the ball on the Lions 38 and brought it back four more yards.

A personal foul against Columbia gave Harvard a first down on the 21. Jim Stoeckel rolled left on the next play and hit junior end Pat McInally in the end zone. Tetirick's kick made the score 20-0.

Junior linebacker John Keough pounced on a Lion fumble on the Columbia two plays after the Crimson kicked off. On first down Stoeckel threw his second touchdown pass, this one to junior tight end Pete Curtin. Tetirick missed the extra point.

McInally, who leads the Crimson receivers with 17 catches and 3 touchdowns, hauled in 4 more passes Saturday for 82 yards and a touchdown.

Pineapple Milt Holt took the helm on the Crimson's next series. The junior southpaw drove the team 69 yards downfield in six plays and handed off to junior halfback Doug Quimby, who went in from four yards out. Tetirick kicked the extra point with just 27 seconds left in the half.

Tetirick, the second place kick-scoring leader in Harvard history with 89 points, made up for his two missed conversion attempts. With one second left in the half, he kicked a 47-yard line drive that hit the front of the crossbar, bounced up and over the post for the field goal.

Stoeckel and the first unit started the second half and in two minutes had put seven more points on the board.

50-Point Bulge

Columbia fumbled the kick-off and Harvard got the ball back on the Lion 12. Holt came back in and on third and seven tossed a short lob to junior halfback Steve Dart at the five. Dart took it in for the score. Tetirick's toe put Harvard on the half century mark, 50-0.

The record-tying score came with 11 minutes gone in the third quarter. Holt took the team 64 yards in 13 plays and sophomore halfback Burelle Duvauchelle followed his blockers off right tackle for the four-yard TD. Tetirick's final boot ended the day's scoring.

Restic used the fourth quarter to let the remainder of his 84-man squad get some playing experience. The Harvard substitutes fought the Columbia unit to a 0-0 fourth quarter tie.