Booters Fall to Bulldogs, 3-1, in Finale, But Harvard Offense Displays Strength

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--Showing flashes of brilliance in their offensive game, the Harvard soccer squad fought Yale to a first-half standstill before succumbing to the Elis, 3-1, in Harvard's season finale Wednesday.

The loss dropped Harvard's final record to 3-7-2, the worst for the Crimson since 1956. Yale, rated sixth in New England last week, is now 7-3-4 after the victory over Harvard and a 3-1 NCAA tournament win over Bridgeport on Saturday.

The play of Rick LaCivita, Art Faden and Bob Magee sparked Harvard in the first half as the Crimson line finally came alive. But defensive lapses in the second half allowed Yale to pop two quick goals past Steve Kidder and doom Harvard's chances of an upset.

Harvard opened the scoring with 10:26 on the clock when Magee headed a LaCivita cornerkick by the Yale goalie, Bruce Maronpot. Magee, leading scorer for the Crimson freshmen last year, Steve Hines, Faden and LaCivita mounted constant scoring threats against the Bulldogs in sharp contrast to Harvard's impotent offensive earlier this season.

A questionable goal for Yale came with only 1:43 left in the half and knotted the score at 1-1. Kidder made an off balance save of a Yale direct kick by Brazilian Henry Sherrill, the ball hit the top goal post and dropped straight down. Yale's Doug Billman pushed the rebound across the goal line with his body. The officials claimed Billman had bounced the ball off his chest but it appeared that the ball might have hit Billman's elbow.

Harvard head coach Bruce Munro told his team right before the second half started that they should continue their attack. "This is the end," he said, and Harvard responded by opening the half with an offensive flurry. LeRoy Thompson challenged Maronpot with a hard shot that went wide, and fullbacks Lawson Wulsin and Ralph Booth kept the pressure on with high-chip shots to the forwards.

But disaster struck at 11:21 when sophomore fullback Geoff Hargadon, who played an effective and bruising defensive game up to that point, miskicked on a return pass to Kidder. Yale's Sherrill stole the ball and rammed it past the unprotected Kidder.

Roughly ten minutes later Kidder made an impossible save, diving to his left to punch a shot away from the goal and out of bounds over his own goal line. On the resulting corner kick Kidder was out of position and Chris Coxe headed the ball into the empty Harvard net. Coxe's goal came with 24:27 left in the game and gave Yale a 3-1 lead that stood until the end.

Broken Backs

"I thought we played well," head coach Munro said after the game. "What broke our backs was the goal we scored for them," he added, referring to Hargadon's mistake.

Munro said he felt Harvard had dominated play in the first half and was gaining momentum when the mishap occured. In the first half Maronpot faced six shots by the Crimson.

Kidder finished with eight saves for the game and Yale pounded 23 shots at him. Munro said yesterday that Kidder, who was shaken up the week before in the Brown game, went into the Yale contest with a groin pull, a bad back and injuries to his knee and ankle.

"He really shouldn't have played," Munro said. "Because he was a senior and a captain, he played. I still thought [despite the injuries] he played a hell of a game."

Kidder was aided by the tight defensive play of Lawson Wulsin and Brian Fearnett. Fearnett stopped several potential goals with kick saves when Kidder was out of position and the goal had been left defenseless. Wulsin keyed the offense all afternoon with his clearing passes up the sidelines to Thompson and LaCivita. After Yale's third goal, Harvard sacrificed some of its midfield defense to concentrate on scoring and Fearnett and the fullbacks were faced with several two-on-one and three-on-two situations, which they handled well.

Munro praised LaCivita for his passing, defense and "110 per cent" hustle. LaCivita did it all in his last game, despite playing while injured: cornerkicking, throwing in, and applying defensive pressure at the midfield to break up Yale's attack before it reached the 50-yard line, Mario Gobbo and Tony Van Neil both saw limited action due to injuries and LaCivita was forced to pick up much of the slack.

"Our injury situation was something else," Munro said. Harvard went into the game with Kidder, LaCivita, Thompson, Van Neil and Bob Auritt nursing hurts. Munro added that Harvard had been plagued all fall by the loss of key players to injuries. "From the tough games on it was downhill," he said. "We were thin enough as it was."