M. Booters Denied by Boston College, 1-0

This story should be about the Harvard men's soccer team's dominating win over Boston College.

These words might have been shouting with every letter about the Crimson's grounding of the Eagles.

Unfortunately, the truth must come out--and it hurts.

Yesterday, on a breezy Ohiri field in front of 60 spectators straining into the sun to see the Harvard score everyone knew was coming, B.C. defeated the Crimson, 1-0, in overtime.

"This game should never have gone to overtime," Harvard Coach Mike Getman said. "We put on a clinic during most of the game for the fourth ranked team in the East region."

Might sound like sour grapes--if you did not see the game. The Crimson (4-6-1) flew by the Eagles defenders, shut down any B.C. attack and controlled the ball with perhaps its best play of the season.

But that cannot take away B.C. forward Glenn Moler's goal--off a Rick Hampson pass--with just under eight minutes remaining in the second 15-minute overtime period.

Hampson moved into Harvard's defensive zone with three Crimson defenders back. One defender covered the Eagle on the left and the other two provided a belated challenge to Hampson, who slipped a pass to the wide-open Moler on the right side.

Just inside the box, the B.C. forward drilled the ball to the left of Harvard goalie Jamie Reilly for the game-winning tally.

"I was a second slow off the line," Reilly said. "That's a save I'd like to make."

Reilly's speed wouldn't have been an issue if the Crimson had been able to finish its plays.

Chances abounded, as transitional midfielder Jason Luzak, junior Don Daigle and oft-battered Kenji Hall drove the ball towards the goal. But all too often nobody appeared ready or able to convert the final cross.

"Our main problem is still scoring goals," Getman noted, "but when you leave a team in the game like we did today, they start to believe they can win."

The Eagles had no reason to believe they could win, despite entering with an 8-3-1 record, the Big East lead, and missing three breakaways in yesterday's game.

Harvard created more opportunities, throughout both regulation and extra time, but was thwarted by outside obstacles (both junior Don Daigle and junior Jeremy Amen hit the crossbar in the first 25 minutes of the first half) and its inability to convert.

Again and again, until the Harvard fans did not know when to sit down, the Crimson would make an energetic run, find the open man with crisp passes an then fail to get the best shot off.

"This team is lacking composure right now," Harvard Captain John Shue said, echoing Getman's remarks. "From our own end, up until the offensive 35, we controlled the play but still couldn't score."

Even when the redeeming chance arose nine minutes into the overtime--in the form of a B.C. tripping foul on Harvard sophomore Juan Betancourt in the penalty box--the Crimson cold not drive the score home.

But even the hero of Sunday's win over Penn couldn't tag the Eagles. Amen knocked the penalty kick wide left by four feet as B.C. goalie Brain Boussy dove in the opposite direction.

"We have players with the potential," Shue said. "It's got to start showing through."

NOTEBOOK: Harvard travels to play 10th-ranked Dartmouth Saturday.