Booters Fall in OT, 2-1

With just five more minutes, the Harvard men's soccer team could have pulled off the grandest of larcenies in the young Ivy League season. For exactly 88 minutes and 38 seconds, the booters beat Columbia, the league champions for the past four years.

But two late goals, one in the final four minutes of regulation and one in the first minute and a half of overtime, lifted the upset-bound Lions over the Crimson, 2-1, at the Business School field Saturday morning. The loss levels Harvard's record at 1-1.

"This is a team that can steal a game," said first-year Coach Jape Shattuck after the tough loss, "and that's going to be a problem for our highly rated opponents."

Harvard, last-place finisher in the Ivies a year ago and by most accounts in a rebuilding season under Shattuck, effectively countered Columbia's refined, individual talent with strong team defense and some determined hustling in the opening 45 minutes.

The Crimson's payoff came halfway through the first stanza. Halfback Leighton Welsh found enough space to dribble free out of Harvard's half of the field and strung a long pass to forward Richard Berkman cutting toward the Columbia goal on a breakaway.

Drawing two Lion defenders with him to the left, Berkman delivered a pinpoint pass to Captain Lance Ayrault, his fellow on the front line, isolated with only one fullback on the right side of the pitch.

Burning past his only marker, Ayrault whacked a bending right footer that twisted past Columbia goalkeeper Steve Pfeil and richoated off the right post into the net.

His tally in Saturday's game gives Ayrault two in as many matches, second in scoring only to Berkman, who has two goals and two assists.

Stung by the Crimson tally, Columbia responded like a swarm of been for the rest of the match, putting unrelenting pressure on the Harvard goal mouth as the difference in skill became apparent and the booters made fewer forays into the Lion's half.

Credit for stemming the Lions onslaught for most of the match goes to junior Phil Coogan, who twice look out charging Columbia forwards at the edge of the penalty box and found himself diving across the goal mouth on one-handed saves too many times to count.

With little or no pressure on their own net, Columbia's fullbacks began to come forward into the attack, and with just 3:22 left, defender Steve Taylor snuck into Harvard's penalty box and converted halfback Jim Wurster's cross into the tying tally.

NCAA rules state soccer overtime is two, 10-minute periods, but for most purposes, it was shortened to 1:33 Saturday. Yardling lan Hardington knocked down a Columbia forward in the penalty box, and after complaining about three indirect kicks in the box early in the match, the Lions drew the penalty kick they said they deserved. Forward Tambi Kazbek converted from the charity spot, and the fatigued booters couldn't muster enough to equalize.

Harvard's performance indicates the booters are a genuine threat as a spoiler in the Ivies this season. Outplaying the class of the league for one half is no small accomplishment, and the booters still have two tough matches with non-Ivy opponents to smooth over the rough spots.