URI Boots Frustrated Crimson Squad, 1-0, To End Two-Game Soccer Winning Streak

KINGSTON, R.I. -- This is getting frustrating. Just when the Harvard soccer team appeared to have found the scoring touch in its two recent wins, it went out and played its worst game of the season here yesterday, losing to the University of Rhode Island by a score of 1-0.

The Crimson came out flat and got worse as the game progressed. Coach George Ford went with the 4-4-2 alignment that he had employed in the dismal early part of the season, leaving behind the 4-2-4 used in the wins against Cornell and Amherst.

In the first half, Harvard actually had several chances to score. An early Walter Diaz shot bounced back off the crossbar to no avail.

With only two minutes remaining in the first 45, Diaz had another opportunity when the ball reached him in the penalty area. The trouble was that URI goalie Gonsales Rico also arrived at the same time. The shot by Diaz knocked the Ram netminder to the ground where he remained motionless for several minutes.

Breezy

Despite having the wind behind them in the second half, the Crimson booters failed to improve. Some fine saves by Harvard freshman goaltender Peter Walsh held the Rams at bay for the first fifteen minutes of the final half.

An obstruction call in the Harvard penalty area set up an indirect kick fifteen feet from the goal. Only sloppy URI play prevented a score.

The Rams finally broke onto the scoreboard at 15:42. A pass from Len Mercurio gave Gillian King a breakaway in front of the goal. King's shot was high, but it hit the bottom of the crossbar and came to rest in the net.

Coach Ford immediately yanked his two forwards, Diaz and Lee Nelson, who had accounted for all but one of the squad shots on goal up to that point. URI all but dominated the rest of the game as it triangulated its passing effectively while Harvard watched. The Crimson's passing went from bad to poor, as the Rams beat them to the ball.

Nelson and Diaz re-entered the game with a minute left, but every Harvard rush to the goal was met with a wall of white jerseys.

Rough Stuff

The frustration reached a peak when, with one minute remaining, Harvard's Andy Kronfeld tried to mix it up with Ram fullback Kevin Murphy after Kronfeld fell and Murphy held his foot.

Harvard Captain Jim Langton summed it up afterwards. "It wasn't like the other games where we dominated and deserved to win but didn't. We didn't deserve this one," he said.

The loss dropped the booter's record to 2-6 for the season while URI's record improved to 3-2-4.