M. Soccer Opens Year With Win Over Big Red

Neither heavy winds, stifling humidity nor barely tolerable finishing could keep Harvard men's soccer Head Coach Stephen Locker from taking what he wanted Saturday against Cornell.

Not has 100th career, collegiate victory, although that, came in due time.

No, Locker looked merely for two things which had escaped the Crimson in his previous two years at the Harvard helm: a solid start to his team's season, and a win over the Big Red.

Score that two for two. The sheer volume of the chances Harvard created overpowered the overmatched Big Red by a 2-0 tally, sophomores Kevin Silva and T.J. Carella scoring the goals.

"I thought we played well enough to win, but we left ourselves a lot of room for improvement," Locker said. "We didn't dictate the style of play in q way we should have--we played much too hurriedly."

Especially in the second half, with fatigue setting in and the wind at its back, Harvard (1-0-0, 1-0-0 Ivy) found itself straying from its short passing game into a more long-balling style. But Cornell (1-2-0, 0-1-0 Ivy) still found at though to keep up with the Crimsons talented attack.

After a fairly even opening ten minutes. Harvard began to puncture the Big Red defense, junior Chris Wojcik moving up from midfield to take (but not finish) a number of offensive chances.

But it took a counterattacking move begun by senior Derek Swaim to open the Crimson's goal-scoring account for the 1994 season. In the game's 20th minute, Swaim's fine left-side run found sophomore David Bonita, who threaded a pass to Silva just to the right of the penalty spot.

Big Red goalkeeper Quinn O'Sullivan had no chance on the shot, making for the sort of goal that can open up a defense for more plunder.

"We were just waiting for our chances--we had a couple of opportunities early," Silva said. "David made a nice ball for me, and the finish was pretty simple."

Simpler still might have been some of the chances that eluded sophomore Will Kohler. Kohler spent much of the early stages of the second half in a perpetual sprint toward the Cornell goal, three times dribbling through the Big Red defense and around O'Sullivan only to fail at the end.

"Sometimes, especially early in the season, you can run your ass off and then get so exited at the shot that you screw it up," a sheepish Kohler said.

But several key saves by Harvard's Ned Carlson, issuing the first challenge in what could be in interesting netminding platoon duel with sophomore Peter Albers, kept Cornell off the scoreboard. With play getting physical (Harvard's John Vrionis and Tom Marcotullio were booked within a minute of each other after halftime), it took another Kohler creation to dissipate the Big Red's chances.

Admittedly, it came only after another 3 on I rush petered out. But Kohler (After blowing another breakaway. I wasn't feeling to confident, he said smiling) used a nifty back-heel to open the Cornell defense again, and a trailing Carella met the pass with a blast into the upper left corner right on 70 minutes.

The sticky conditions and a heavy pitch helped slow the play down after that, but give high marks to dynamic freshmen Toure McCluskey and Ricky Le for injecting life into a game getting stale at its end.

"All preseason we've had beautiful weather, and though we've loved it during the sprints, come the opener, it got a little tough on our legs as it got more and more humid," Carella said.

But after watching his team pass its first regular season test with consummate case. Coach Locker was all smiles at game's end. He knows there is room to improve, but his coaching task is manageable.

"We did create a lot of chances--we must have been offside 15 times. and there were six of seven more times we were though and couldn't finish it off," Locker said. "But finishing waxes hot and cold, and overall I'm very pleased with the effort the boys gave."