Bullard Leads Booters Over Yale, 2-1; Crimson Ends Season on Strong Note

Harvard's soccer team ended its season on a bullish--or rather a Bullard--note yesterday as the Crimson defeated Yale, 2-1, at New Haven behind Lyman Bullard's two-goal performance.

It was not The Game (though it was played both literally and physically in the shadow of the Yale Bowl), but it was a pleasant ending to a season marked by both accomplishment and frustration. The victory gave the booters a winning 4-3 Ivy League record and an overall record of 7-7-1.

The Crimson took charge of the game from the opening kickoff, when Steve Hines dribbled the ball down the left wing, cut inside and popped a crossing shot in front of the goal. When the cross bounded away from the Eli goalkeeper, Bullard pounced on the opportunity and drilled the ball into the net at 0:38.

Harvard kept pressure on Yale's defense. At 11:46 of the first half, Bullard fired what proved to be the winning goal just underneath the Yale goalie after a cross and a scramble in front of the net.

About midway through the half, the Elis started to mount an offensive attack. At 28:03, Yale forward Bill Edelson scored when he swiped the ball from Crimson goalie Fred Herold as Herold dived in vain after an errant backpass.

Although both squads had a number of good scoring chances as play see-sawed back and forth the rest of the game, the 2-1 score held up as the final margin.

A steady and sometimes sleeting downpour that filled the field with puddles and slowed the pace of the game partially accounted for the lack of scoring. At one point in the second half, Bullard's soft volley shot off Dave Eaton's cross stopped dead in a puddle on the goal line before a Yale fullback cleared the ball.

Harvard had other opportunities to run up the score--Mike Lohrer and George Grassby popped near-misses in the second half and Dave Acorn missed a breakaway in the first half on a great save by the goalie--but none of them clicked.

Yale also created some solid scoring chances, but except for the one bad backpass by his own fullback, Herold stopped the Elis cold. The Crimson goalie registered nine saves for the game on 26 Yale shots.

Harvard accumulated 15 shots during the game.