Crimson Booters Trounce Huskies; Thomas, Gomez Star in 5-0 Triumph

Wings Charlie Thomas and Solomon Gomez completely dazzled the backfield, and Harvard goalie Bill Meyers made several sensational saves, as the varsity soccer team whitewashed the Connecticut Huskies, 5-0, yesterday on Cumnock Field.

Harvard, with improved teamwork, played its best game to date-its third straight win and second straight shutout. "We're improving every day," coach Bruce Munro said after the game. Yesterday's improvement could be seen both on the front line and in the backfield.

Leading the Crimson attack. Thomas and Gomez repeatedly raced the Huskie defense and turned the ball in front of the net. Inside forward Phil Kydes always seemed in perfect position, scoring once and assisting on two other goals. Junior Pete Bogovich's hustling was impressive. He frequently broke up Connecticut rushes in the Harvard half of the field.

An indication of the Crimson's fullback strength was the weak showing of Huskie star forward John Sahnas. Last year Sahnas scored twice and carried his team to a 2-2 tie with Harvard. Yesterday Sahnas was contained by Phil Axten and Bill Brock, and the Connecticut wing never got a shot on goal.

Save by Meyers

The Huskies started fast and kept the opening play of the game in the Harvard half of the field. Meyers broke the momentum of the attack with a great save, his toughest of the whole game, on a shot by Abe Reich.

The stop gave the Crimson momentum as it moved back down the field and just missed scoring on two hard shots by Thomas. With 12 minutes gone in the first period. Bogovich fed Thomas on the left wing, and the sophomore speedster put a dribbler past the confused Huskie fullback.

That goal took the fight out of Connecticut. The Huskies never really harassed the Crimson offense after that score, and Harvard dominated the rest of the match. At 7:14 of the second period reserve lineman Bruce Detora lofted a centering pas to Kydes. The sophomore forward completed the play for his first goal of the year and gave the Crimson a comfortable edge.

Kydes teamed with Gomez at the start of the second half to score Harvard's prettiest goal of the day. Gomez started a give-and-go play on the right wing, and Kydes returned the pass perfectly. Outracing the Connecticut fullback. Gomez put the shot into the far corner of the net for a 3-0 lead.

With the game wrapped up, coach Munro installed his second team, which promptly scored twice. Center half Rich Hardy started one play with a long lead to Kydes, who passed to open wing John Runyan for the tally.

The only thing the Crimson couldn't do right was kick the ball out of bounds. With five reserve players waiting to play in the closing minutes, Munro shouted at his squad. "Kick the ball over the goal line to stop the clock."

But every time a Crimson player approached the endline, he found a tempting open shot on the goal.

Three minutes later Munro was screaming at his players to kick the ball out of bounds. Kydes had a free kick, but the temptation of the goal was too much and the goalie blocked the shot. Runyan had the rebound but fired it right at the goalie. Finally right wing Jim Sawhill tried to comply with Munro's orders, but he failed to kick the ball out of bounds, hitting it into the net instead for the Crimson's final score. Coach Munro was not too unhappy. The reserves were.