Rain, Rams Leave Crimson Booters Tied at 0-0

On a one-through-ten nastiness scale, this one ranked up around nine, somewhere in the vicinity of miserable. Playing on a sea of grass known as the Business School soccer field, Harvard battled a cold, driving rain and a tough University of Rhode Island squad yesterday, coming up with only a 0-0 tie to show for its 110-minute effort.

Each team managed to come up with a couple of bona fide scoring chances in the exhausting contest--one URI shot bounded off the post in overtime--but for the most part the main actor in this bitter drama was the weather.

The combination of a Karsh, gusting wind blowing diagonally across the field, a bone-chilling downpour, and a grass playing surface that seemed almost to be drenched in oil set the stage for a game that would see countless slips, slides and wildly spinning balls.

Neither team ever established any pattern of domination in the contest, and neither walked away from the field overly dissappointed with the tied score.

Play opened with both squads moving up and down the field cautiously--and a little sloppily--and neither gaining much of an advantage.

Ram forward Otto Schwartz gave the spectators a visual synopsis of the whole contest at the 10-minute mark when, looking at an open net following a corner kick, he spun the wet ball way over the net from close range. It was going to be that kind of a day.

After the players finished up a relatively lackluster first half, the elements again asserted themselves as the protagonist in the story of the game. Just a couple of minutes into the second half, the clouds started raining liquid BB's on the field, and the wind picked up to the point where the foundations of Harvard Stadium itself seemed to shake.

The weather cleared somewhat midway through the period, but neither team managed to find the nets. A couple of stellar (they're beginning to look routine) Fred Herold saves, and another frustrating 45 minutes for the Crimson offense sent the contest into overtime--which consists of two ten-minute periods, without sudden death.

The Rams, who had played respectably well considering the conditions, pestered Herold several times in the extra periods, but--as one might deduce from reading the preceding words in this story--did not score.

The heart-stopper, the play that made it look as if the hours spent risking hypothermia had been spent in vain, came with 1:30 left in the first overtime.

At that point, Crimson left fullback John Sanacore came out of nowhere to attempt a sliding tackle on a semi-breakaway by a URI forward. Sanacore just tipped the ball, and sent it spinning toward the corner of the goal, with net-minder Herold sprawled helplessly on the slippery turf after trying to switch directions.

But the scoreboard seemed fated to remain empty, and the ball caromed off the post and bounced away--just one of many "almost, but not quite" plays in the afternoon.

"It was pretty hairy," captain Herold said after the game, adding, "I thought they were the best team we've played yet, so it's okay that we got away with a tie."

For Herold (1.14 goals-against average) and the rest of the Harvard defense (special honors for yesterday go to fresh-man Michael Smith), the game will stand as one more trophy in a young season that has already seen its share of award-winning performances. The contest marked the second time in seven games the offense was shutout, and the second time that the shutout was matched.

Stingy

As for the offense, well, it's tough to expect much on a day better suited for scuba diving. Freshman Walter Diaz turned in another marvelous performance for Harvard, but constantly found himself thwarted by either a timely URI foul just as he was about to break a play, the turf, or a Ram defense that was in a word, stingy.

The victory raised the booters' record to a surprising 4-1-2. Coming down off the sky-high Dartmouth win Friday, and not practicing over the weekend, the stalemate seemed like a fair enough result for the Crimson.

Still, it was a nasty way to spend an afternoon.