Cornell Tips Booters, 1-0, After Double Overtime, 105-Minute Tense Contest

ITHACA. N.Y.--"After 45 minutes, Cornell zero, Harvard zero," "After 90 minutes, Cornell zero, Harvard zero." "After 100 minutes, Cornell zero, Harvard zero."

With five minutes left in the second 10 minute overtime, it appeared that the public address system would announce a 110-minute tie. But the Big Red would have it otherwise, as Cornell tallied at 105:23 to seal a 1--0 defeat of the Crimson.

Travelling 400 miles to kiss your sister was a bad enough prospect, but for Harvard there wasn't even a hug. It was the all-too-familiar story of the Crimson outplaying its opponent but still getting beaten. As wing Mauro Keller-Sarmiento said after the game, "This can't keep happening to us, can it?"

After dominating play for most of the contest, the Crimson got two bad breaks in a row that cost it the game. A penalty set up a free kick by the Big Red from just outside the penalty area. Harvard goalie Ed Weinfurter reached up to fist the ball just as Cornell forward Sam Fisher lept for a header. From there the events were unclear.

"The guy didn't even see it when he ran into Eddie," Harvard captain John Sanacore said later. "They collided; it hit off his back; and there it was, going toward the goal."

"That wasn't how it was," Fisher said in the adjacent locker room. "The goalie was hitting me from behind and the ball went off my head deflected off him and went into the net."

The Crimson was not without opportunities of it own. In the opening minute, Sanacore did his slingshot impersonation and heaved a throw-in toward the center of the field: After a couple of passes, Mike Mogollan crashed a shot that bounced off the left upright.

Harvard actually thought it had opened the scoring in the second half when, with 30 minutes gone, a penalty kick breezed past Big Red goaltender David Weed. Crimson jerseys streamed on to the field, but the celebration was premature, as officials ruled that the penalty called for an indirect kick, and the ball had gone directly into the net.

Walter Diaz was robbed on what looked to be a sure goal with 8:40 left in the first overtime. After bringing a bounding ball under control in front of the goal, Diaz left-footed a shot that was saved from the net by Weed's horizontal drive.

"We just can't seem to finish it off when we get into the penalty area," Sanacore said. "Their back line was pretty weak. I just can't believe we didn't score."

THE NOTEBOOK: The Harvard-Cornell series, now at 22-12-5 in favor of the Crimson, has had a recent low-scoring history. Two years ago in Ithaca, the teams battled to a 0-0 tie; and last year, two Diaz goals were the only tallies in a 2-0 Harvard win....Weinfurter, replacing the injured Bill Blood, was impressive in his debut in the goal....friday night's loss drops the Harvard record to 1-3-1 overall, and 0-2 in the Ivies.