M. Soccer Opens Season Versus Cornell

For the Harvard men's soccer team, this weekend marks a fresh start for a team that needed one.

Last season began with great promise, with an early drubbing of Fairfield and an inspiring victory over Columbia. But injuries to key players stunted the Crimson's defense of its 1994 Ivy League Co-Championship.

Now, the team is at full strength, and is ready to deliver the promise it showed in the early going of 1995.

Harvard is well positioned to deliver that promise, having lost only two players to graduation.

The offense will be at top strength, as three of the team's top scorers from 1995 are back for more action. Senior Rich Wilmot, who tallied six goals and six assists last season, will anchor the front line.

He will be joined by junior forward Toure McCluskey and sophomore forward Zach Viders, whose emergence last season gave Crimson fans another reason to look for big things from this year's offensive unit.

Seniors T.J. Carella, John Vrionis and Jim Quagliaroli will anchor the defense, another unit that was decimated by injuries last season.

The team's midfield may well be its biggest strength. Despite losing former captain Chris Wojcik to graduation, the midfield will still be keyed by the team's captain, senior Will Kohler.

Freshman sensation Armando Petruccelli will be back for his sophomore year and will be reunited with junior Ricky Le.

But perhaps the biggest addition to the corps of middies is senior Kevin Silva, whose entire 1995 campaign was wiped out by a knee injury.

Silva was second on the team scoring list in 1994 with six goals and one assist, an effort that earned him Second Team All-Ivy honors.

Senior Peter Albers is the team's first-string goaltender. Albers finished last season fourth in the Ivy League with a 1.25 GAA. He'll be spelled by back-up netminder Jordan Dupuis.

The team's season begins 1 p.m. Sunday at Ohiri Field, when the Crimson hosts Cornell.

Harvard's early schedule isn't exactly friendly--after Cornell, the team faces Columbia, Boston University, and Yale--but the team is healthy and ready for the challenges of September.