Catliff's Four Goals No Surprise

When he left Harvard's Ohiri Field more than a year ago, he was just another All-Ivy Crimson soccer player. An All-Ivy performer, to be sure, but nothing extra special.

Now, returned, John Catliff is a man among boys.

In the fall of 1984, Catliff led the Crimson booters in scoring for the second straight year, garnered league honors for the second straight year, and led Harvard to its first NCAA quarterfinal appearance in more than a decade.

Then Catliff went on to try his hand--and his feet and his head--at bigger and better things. Returning to his native Vancouver, British Columbia, Catliff played for his national team in a series of World Cup qualifying matches.

Although Team Canada eventually qualified for the world-wide soccer showdown, Catliff suffered a severe injury to his right knee and could not compete for his country.

But--at least from Harvard's point of view--there was a saving grace. Catliff, originally a member of the Class of '86, took off the spring semester last year to try to get back onto Team Canada in time for the World Cup.

The comeback failed, but Catliff's move made him a second semester senior this fall and thus eligible for another year of intercollegiate play.

You might expect that after 18 months of international competition, Catliff would find college soccer a little easier.

And if you thought that, you'd be right.

In his first game back, against MIT last week, Catliff scored his team's first goal and assisted on another in Harvard's 3-0 romp.

But Catliff was just warming up.

His real test, and the real test for the entire Harvard squad, came Saturday against eight-time defending Ivy champ Columbia.

Catliff scored Harvard's first goal against Columbia at the 11:42 mark when he took a Drory Tendler pass on the left of the Lion goal and lined a shot into the upper right corner of the net.

And then he scored again. And again. And again.

Four times John Catliff took aim on the Columbia goal, and four times his shots found the twine.

And so, 90 minutes after the Ancient Eight's top two teams faced off, the Ivy League looked to have a new champ. And Harvard looked to have an extra-special star.

"I expected him to score two goals maybe," an understandably happy Harvard Coach Jape Shattuck said after Catliff's stunning hat-trick-plus-one performance. "But not four."

"I think he's better now than he was when he played for us in '84," Shattuck continued, "but I don't think he's as good as when he played for Canada in the World Cup matches."

Which is little--very little--consolation to Harvard's opponents. Ivy League soccer is good college soccer. And Columbia specifically has often found itself among the top-ranked teams in the country, so it wasn't minor league collegians that Catliff pulled his four-goal performance against.

But for Catliff, with all that international experience under his belt, it didn't really seem like much of a challange.

"It changed me for the better," Catliff said of his Team Canada experience. "It made me much more aware of what was going on."

So much more aware that Catliff scored his fistful of goals without much apparent exertion. In all cases, he was just in the right place at the right time. Twice, he scored on headers, a sign of good instinct and positioning. Catliff wasn't the quickest player on Ohiri Field Saturday, but he was certainly the best.

But Catliff took more than just experience away from his international play--he must wear a two-foot metal and plastic brace to protect his wounded knee.

"I just hate it when I have to go down and tackle with that brace," Catliff said. "That thing always flies off, and I have to take time and put it back on."

"He's about as durable as a Sherman Tank," Shattuck claims. "He knows when contact is coming, and he knows how to protect himself. He knows just when to attack."

And it seems that Catliff, despite a damaged knee, is still head and shoulders above just about every other college soccer player around. With five goals already, Catliff is a lock to surpass last year's Harvard scoring leader (Lane Kenworthy, who had six) and has a shot at the Crimson single-season record of 18.

"Four goals in one game," someone marvelled to Catliff after the Columbia contest, "this all must seem a lot easier than the international play you're used to."

John Catliff looked up, thought for a moment, and smiled.

"Yeah," he answered simply.

Catliff smiled some more.

"It does."