Amherst Defeats Crimson In Soccer, 3-0; Poor Clutch Play, Defense, Bring Loss

An inability to get good shots off in front of the goal combined with several key defensive lapses proved the undoing of the varsity soccer team last Saturday, as a strong Amherst squad handed the Crimson its first loss of the season, 3 to 0.

The game was played under the worst possible conditions as winds of gale force at times whipped the playing field into a miniature sandstorm. As a result, the team that was playing into the wind was usually on the defensive and was forced to limit its offense to a series of breaks.

Amherst lived up to its advanced notices by playing a wide open type of soccer with long passes across the field. But while the Lord Jeff forwards were big and relatively fast, it was the visitors' defense that made the difference. Their two fullbacks, Co-Captain Don Hicks and Drew Mallory, were all over the field, breaking up Crimson attacks and feeding their own forwards. As varsity coach Bruce Munro commented after the game, "they just ran over our forwards."

As for the varsity, it did not have one of its better days. With the exception of brief stretches in the last two periods, Amherst consistently beat it to the ball and set its plays up more successfully. On two of the three Amherst goals, the Crimson defense failed to cover a wing who would get a pass from his opposite number across the field.

The Crimson forwards revived an old failing of last year as they were unable to set up plays in front of the Amherst goal and get off good shots. Often the varsity linemen would get the ball deep into Amherst territory where they would be confronted by a formidable, three-man line of defense. Instead of trying to go around this line, they would try unsuccessfully to go through it. The result was that the Amherst goalie never had to handle a really difficult shot in the whole afternoon.

Amherst's first goal typified its offense for the entire game. The Crimson controlled play for the first two minutes when a Lord Jeff halfback stole the ball and fed a long pass to Pieter Van der Torn, the outside left. Van der Torn got by Lanny Keyes when the Crimson fullback made one of his rare mis-kicks and then passed the ball across the goal mouth to Dan Sykes, the outside right, who was just standing there, unmolested. Sykes had a clear shot for the goal and the Lord Jeffs had a lead that they never relinquished.