Booters' Defense Overwhelms Columbia; Adedeji, Kydes, Papagianis Lead Attack

Riding high on defensive invulnerability the Harvard soccer team easily defeated Columbia on Saturday at the Business School Field, 5-0.

Sophomore Felix Adedeji led the scoring with three goals. Phil Kydes and Chris Papagianis each scored once, and Charlie Thomas recorded two assists as the Crimson outshot the Lions, 32-3.

Although the Columbia line featured fancy footwork and several unspellable names, the Harvard backs broke up most plays before they even reached midfield. The Lions tried to penetrate with long passes and fast breaks, but the Harvard defense was soon intercepting passes at will, and the attack deteriorated to un-gettable through passes and futile dribbling.

Chris Wilmot moved up from fullback to contribute to the offense, and several times wing fullback Rick Scott intercepted goalie throws just outside the penalty area.

"We'll play our backs up whenever the other team allows us to," coach Bruce Munro said after the game. "We were able to completely eliminate the gap between offense and defense."

Harvard's attack was slow at the start, and many rushes deteriorated into dribbling exhibitions. The Columbia goalie played his position with a little too much elan, however, and the Crimson's first two goals found him way out of position.

The First Goal

In the second period Wilmot set up the first goal with a high chip shot on a free kick. Instead of catching the ball, the goalie punched it out of immediate trouble. Linkman Henry Sideropoulos quickly passed to Adedeji, who scored while lying on his back by spinning the ball around the goalie and into the empty nets.

The second goal came seconds before the end of the half when Papagianis scored with his back to the goal by flipping the ball past the over-committed goalie.

The Crimson put the game out of reach with a three-goal flurry in the fourth quarter. Kydes scored with a headshot off a beautiful chip pass by Thomas which had the goalie going the wrong way. Adedeji got his second goal by walking the ball into the nets after dribbling around three backs and the goalie.

The final Harvard goal came when the Columbia goalie knocked the ball off Thomas' foot and onto a rather dubious defensive manuever.

Benchmark Game

The Columbia game marked the first real test of the Harvard bench. Wing fullback Phil Axten was out with eight stitches over his eye from the Amherst game, and linkman Emanuel Ekama was ejected for fighting early in the first period.

Bob Woods filled in for Axten and once again proved himself an invaluable fifth man in the four-man "diamond" defense. Sideropoulos and sophomore Dick LaCivita were solid as linkmen, and Russ Bell showed his versatility by playing well as a linkman and then as a forward.

Harvard's only weakness was hidden in what seemed to be its greatest strength. All five of Saturday's goals were set up by mistakes that a better goalie probably wouldn't have made, and three or four sure goals were lost when linemen refused to make the right pass. More team work is still needed on the line.