M. Booters Blast Penn, 3-1

Yesterday was a nice day to watch a soccer game.

On television.

It was cold and windy at Ohiri Field yesterday, but those few Harvard faithful that attended the game were treated to a strong performance by the Crimson.

Harvard (5-5, 1-2 Ivy) downed Penn, 3-1, and all of a sudden, things are looking just a little bit brighter for the Crimson.

After suffering from a scoring drought for much of the season, Harvard has netted eight goals in the last three games, including three yesterday.

With only five games remaining in the season, every win is a must for Harvard, but if the Crimson can string together a few more wins, it could make the Ivy race interesting.

Yale and Dartmouth lead the way with 2-0 records in conference play, but the title is still up for grabs. Columbia, touted as perhaps the strongest team in the league prior to the start of the season, has one win and two ties.

The ties are significant because the Lions receive only one point for each tie, as opposed to two points for a win. Columbia can finish with no more than four wins, narrowing the Ivy race down a bit.

Of course, Harvard must go undefeated in league play for the remainder of the season if it expects to come out on top, and the Crimson played yesterday like it was well aware of that fact.

Harvard midfielder Don Daigle opened the afternoon's scoring mid-way through the first half off a free kick.

Off a set play, Captain Brian Enge pushed the ball to Daigle, who was positioned to the left and behind the Quakers' wall. Daigle found himself open in front of the net and punched the ball to the right of Penn netminder Glenn Meininger for the 1-0 lead.

"That's just a stupid play on our part," Penn Coach Steve Baumann said. "That's the same play they used on us three years ago when they beat us, 2-1, in overtime."

Penn responded quickly, however, knotting the score at 1-1 three minutes later. The Crimson suffered from a few letdowns in the backfield yesterday, and the Quakers were able to capitalize on this one.

Junior midfielder Easton Germain found himself open in front of the net and Crimson keeper Jamie Reilly never had a chance.

The Crimson outshot Penn, 10-6, in the first half and continued the barrage in the second period.

Midway through the second half, senior fullback Josh Morris scored what proved to be the game-winner. Harvard got some insurance when junior forward Juan Betancourt entered late in the game and headed a ball in off a Jason Luzak cross.

Harvard finished the game with 21 shots on goal and could have run up an even bigger margin of victory.

"We had enough good chances to win," Harvard Coach Mike Get-man said. "I think we gave up a lot of chances, but we still managed to get three."

And that was more than enough.