Brown Blanks Crimson Booters, 3-0

In keeping with the weekend's Halloween spirit, un old ghost that has haunted the men's soccer team in seasons past visited the 1982 squad in its match with Brown Saturday. It was the ghost of missing scoring chances, and it spooked the boaters into a 3-0 shutout at the hands of the Bruins.

For hustle as they would for 90 minutes, Harvard could not dent the Brown net, missing high or wide on several good opportunities in both halves.

"If there's a story to this game, it's the story of missed chances." Coach Jape Shattuck said after the match.

The Statistics prove him right. The booters matched Brown shot for shot (16 on both sides) and ended up with three more corner kicks than the Bruins. But nothing the Crimson could muster touched the twines.

Brown had none of the same problems. In the opening 10 minutes, the Bruins dominated a Harvard squad that looked tentative after a one-week break between matches. And Providence's finest coasted on this early momentum until the halftime whistle.

With 12:50 left the first period. Brown notched what was eventually the game-wining goal, capitalizing on mistakes in the Crimson defense, Bruin fullback Ted Croft dribbled out of the Brown half and launched a long cross toward the Harvard goalmouth. Goalkeeper Phil Coxigan hesitated, then came off his line to try to intercept the pass. But Brown forward John Wilk, running unmarked, beat him to the hall and headed it into an empty net for the tally.

The booters--who had trouble converting scoring chances but not creating them against the Bruins--had two near misses on similar plays that could have tied the game before the half ended. Two minutes after the Brown goal, junior halfback Leo Lanzillo won a ball on the right wing and crossed to captain Lance Ayrault cutting into the penalty box from the left. The senior striker connected on a diving header that slid inches past the right post.

With two minutes remaining in the first stanza, freshman forward Lane Kenworthy crossed from just inside the penalty area to Ayrault making an identical run. The Harvard captain nodded the ball toward the left post, forcing Bruin keeper Hunter Stern to tip the shot over the crossbar on a diving save.

The booters settled in the second half into the deliberate offense that has served them all season, with the fullbacks carrying the ball to midfield then passing forward. But even the usual failed to produce the needed score.

"It seemed things were just a hair off at times," explained Shattuck. "We lacked a little the precision."

With just six minutes left in the match, Harvard nearly got its break when freshman stopper lun Hardington dribbled from deep in the Crimson end into the Brown penalty box and cracked a blazing drive that skimmed past the left post.

Shattuck had moved the booters into a riskier man-to-man defense 30 minutes into the second half. In the final three minutes, the Bruins exploited the unsupported Harvard back line, with forwards Eric Holm-Olsen and Fred Reinhardt each tallying to ice the match.