Varsity Ties Alumni in Annual Soccer Game; All-Americans Beef Up 'Old Varsity' Line-Up As Each Squad Boots Goal in Weekend Tilt

The Harvard varsity soccer team tied an alumni team 1-1 at the annual varsity-alumni game Saturday.

Junior back John Littlefield, assisted by junior forward Stephen Hines, dented the nets six minutes into the second half and the alumni tallied its goal with two minutes left on the clock.

Shep Messing '72, a former All-American, and Olympian, who now plays with the New York Cosmos, and Phil Kydes '72, a former All-American, were among the alumni who returned for the game.

Sophomore goalie Pete Durgerian said most of the players were in their twenties and thirties although one alumnus "looked like he could be my father."

Weaker Than Expected

Durgerian said although the alumni had quality players, they were not in good shape. He said because Harvard has had strong teams in the past five years, he thought the old varsity returnees would perform better than they did.

Harold Weeks, sophomore goalie, said he was not expecting a competitive game because the alumni had only a half hour to practice. "We were able to control the game a great deal because they were so disorganized and out of condition," Weeks said. "It wasn't comparable to playing a well-drilled team from another school."

He said the varsity did not know what to expect because prior to the game, "we didn't know who they had or what condition they were in."

Brutality, Not Finesse

"In their prime, they were probably more skillful than we are now." Hines said yesterday. "They played a physical game instead of relying on finesse. I'd be taking the ball down the field and they'd try to knock me down to get the ball."

Littlefield disagreed however, saying "they weren't that aggressive." He added that although it was exciting to play with Messing and Kydes, he was disappointed that there weren't more players there from last year's team.

"They were a very good passing team," sophomore back Lyman Bullard said yesterday. "I was surprised because they weren't in that great shape."

The alumni had 20 players for the Friends of Harvard Soccer-sponsored game and substituted frequently. Aris Yannopoulos, sophomore back, said Messing only played the first half because "they had a lot of people who wanted to get in the game."