Booters Set for Season Opener

Today, for the first time in four years, Derek Mills will start in the opener of the men's soccer season.

And for the first time in three years, Paul Baverstock won't.

The Crimson travels to MIT for its annual season-opening meeting with the Engineers today at 3 p.m. and Mills, who has been plagued with injuries throughout his Harvard career, is injury-free and slated to start at center forward.

But the midfield will be minus Baverstock, the team captain and the mainstay of center midfield for the past two season. Baverstock injured his knee during pre-season and is expected to be out three to six weeks.

"The big question is how our midfield will do," Harvard Coach Mike Getman said. "Are they able to control the tempo of the game as we expect them to? The players are talented--Jeremy Amen and Lenny Ilkhanoff played last year--but they were always anchored by Paul Baverstock."

Ilkhanoff and Amen will be joined by senior Richard Knight, just in for pre-season last Friday. Knight saw a great deal of playing time as a sophomore, but skipped last season for personal reasons.

With only a few days of training with the team, it is questionable how much time Knight will see today.

"He should last about 15 minutes," said Getman. "But he is building when he's on the field and has been playing extremely well."

Getman's other big question is the back: How solid will his newly-constructed defense be in protecting inexperienced goaltender Scott Salisbury?

It was expected that half of the backfield--the stopper and the left fullback--would be newcomers to those positions. But Getman didn't count on having to find himself a new sweeper as well.

While Baverstock was supposed to be the anchor in the midfield, junior Nick Gates was supposed to be the glue that held the backfield together.

Unfortunately, Gates is in England--he flew home for personal reasons and won't be back until Friday.

So junior John Shue will step in at sweeper, supported by sophs Brian Enge (left fullback) and Josh Morris (stopper) and senior Roger Chapman, the sole returning starter in the back. Enge started at both midfield and forward last fall.

"We're looking for a solid effort at back, especially without Nick Gates at sweeper," Getman said. "John Shue has a chance to prove himself and we need the other backs to provide leadership."

The real leadership in today's game should come from the forwards. Mills will be joined by seniors Dave Kramer--who scored the game-winner against MIT last fall--and Nick D'Onofrio, who have seven years of starting experience between them. With this trio out in front. Getman hopes he can do better than last year's 1-0 win.

"I'm tired of 1-0," Getman said. "We will not come out of this game 1-0, I would rather lose than end up 1-0. We plan to come out and attack very hard."

The Engineers, a division III team, are coming off a 6-9 season and have only one big gun returning. Sophomore Stephan Feldgoise (6 goals, 2 assists for 14 points) will provide the firepower up front, while Icelandic import Hans Smarason (3-1--5) is MIT's top midfielder.

Chris Prince (.710 save percentage, 1.83 goals-against-average) returns to guard the nets for the Engineers.