Brown Booters Nip Crimson, 3-2 In Battle for Ivy Championship

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Nov. 18--Harvard threw two first-period goals and a courageous defense at Ivy champion Brown and battled gamely to the end of an exciting 3-2 loss in the soccer game of the year here this morning.

An appreciative crowd of over 3000 Crimson and Bruin supporters watched Brown tie the game twice in the first quarter, then score the winning tally midway through the second period.

Harvard missed a penalty, kick and an open goal early in the third quarter, but spent the rest of the second half repelling an awesome siege of the Crimson goal.

Gary Montero and Lutz Hoeppner broke Harvard's long scoring drought against the Brownies; and Dave Wright, Richie Hardy, and goalie John Axten stood up time and again against the strongest attack ever seen in the Ivy League.

Brown was weak at only one position, left fullback; and Harvard took advantage by aiming its attack through right wing Gerry Montero. The Crimson sophomore responded with his best performance of the year, including the goal that gave the Crimson a life it had only dreamt of.

Montero centered the ball through his fullback, but a shot by Hardy deflected it back to right wing. Then the unguarded Montero exploded a shot that hit the bottom of the crossbar and landed just inside the goal.

But Brown rebounded quickly with a goal by Ben Brewster at 8:05. Goalie Axten came diving out through the mud to block a Brown shot and got caught in a pile-up as Brewster picked up the rebound and hit the open net from the right side.

Four minutes later the Crimson regained the lead. Hardy aimed a free kick along the ground to Hoeppner at the edge of the penalty area. The senior inside trapped it, pivoted and sent a Hoeppner bullet inches inside the left post.

Brown's second game tier was inevitable. Harvard coach Bruce Munro had worried before the game about his team's tendency to give up corner kicks. Last week Princeton received 12 (and scored on one), and Munro knew a similar allowance to the more dangerous Bruins would be fatal.

Perfect Placements

Six time in the first quarter, DeJong and Detora sent perfectly placed corner kicks across the goal mouth, too hard for the goalie to move out on, at the perfect height for the brawny Brown forwards.

DeJong took the seventh corner from the right side with less than two minutes remaining in the period and Detora headed it just under the crossbar. Axten, caught off-balance, tipped the shot but not enough.

Brown's third goal, at 15:22 of the second period, was the picture play of the afternoon. A fast break down the left side set up a bang-bang series of crosses, from Detora to Brewster to right inside George Gerdts, who shot without trapping into the lower right corner of the goal.

Harvard got its best chance to catch up in the first minute of the second half. Brown center half Pat Migliore tripped Montero two yards inside the penalty zone and Harvard was awarded a penalty kick.

Hoeppner, who tied the Cornell game in overtime last month with a shot just inside the right post, aimed at the same spot. But Bill Hager, substituting in the goal for co-captain Bob Bernius, blocked the ball with a dive, and beat Harvard's Bill Schaefer to the rebound.

Instead of dying, the Crimson players fought back and came within a yard of scoring.

Hager came far out of the goal minutes later to cut down the angle on Harvard's Jaime Vargas. Vargas rocketed a ball that bounced straight back off Hager. The Crimson junior instinctively kicked his foot again and the ball went past Hager toward the empty goal fifteen yards away.

But the wet, dug-up ground slowed the ball and Brown fullback Walt Scott-Craig caught up to it and cleared it wide.

Harvard never again came so close, but Brown missed several clear shots from close range.

The fourth quarter was all Brown, until the final three minutes. Then Scott Robertson and Vargas came alive and mounted a final offensive. Hoeppner got off the Crimson's best shot of the half, but time ran out with the score still 3-2.

The win boosted Brown's record to 12-0-1, and left Harvard's 7-3-1.