Booters Stage Comeback to Top Columbia, 3-2

Dave Acorn's two goals, sandwiched around George Grassby's single tally, gave Harvard's soccer team a dramatic 3-2 come-from-behind victory in its Ivy League opener against a physical Columbia squad Saturday morning at the Business School field.

Harvard dominated play in the opening 20 minutes, mounting charge after charge at the Lions' goal, but coming up emptyhanded each time. Coach George Ford said later, "We were creating enough chances to get ourselves into a comfortable lead, but we just didn't capitalize on them."

The booters' frustration reached its peak 15 minutes into the game, when a holding call against Columbia nullified a score by Acorn and Lyman Bullard pushed the subsequent penalty shot wide of the left side of the goal mouth.

Momentum

Suddenly, Columbia reversed the game's momentum with two quick goals. The first came at 24:24 by an indirect kick, on a play where Ford Said "it seemed like the guys were sleeping." Only two minutes later, the Lions tallied again on a scramble following a corner kick.

From the gloomy, overcast skies to the outlook for the game, things looked grim for Harvard at that point.

Harvard's prospects brightened, though, with ten minutes left in the half when Bullard lofted a corner kick high in front of the Columbia net, Chris Saunders out-leaped two defenders for the header, and Acorn Knocked the bouncing ball past the Lion goalkeeper.

With the score at 2-1, a second half comeback seemed within reach. Grassby was not about to wait for the second half, however. With 48 seconds remaining in the period, he lined a shot into the goal after Acorn headed Geoff Hargadon's direct kick.

At half-time, Ford made some key strategic changes. He assigned center fullback Mark Zimering to cover Columbia's speedy center forward full time. Wing fullbacks Hargadon and Ralph Booth dropped back a little to compensate.

Offensively, Ford said, "we started off differently [at the half] with Grassby playing in front of Acorn and Bullard as a spearhead." Sweeper forward Matt Bowyer shifted back to halfback to work as a link with Saunders.

The Pay-Off

The moves paid off. At 22:50, Eric Zager passed a rebounded shot to Acorn, who drilled a low liner off the diving goalkeeper's outstretched fingertips for the winning margin.

The defense toughened up in the second half, with Fred Herold getting stingy in the nets and the fullbacks stopping most of Columbia's offensive thrusts. Booth secured the victory with one minute remaining when he cleared a loose ball off the Crimson goal line.

Reflecting on his team's first three games, Ford said, "I'm pleased with the way things have been going, [although] we're still trying to get ourselves settled."

Ford calls Bullard "an improved player over last year," when he scored eight goals and achieved All-Ivy status, but claims that his star forward is "anxious to do well" and seems to be "pushing."

Tension

"The thing I'm most disappointed in," Ford said, "is that we don't get ourselves into a position to play good soccer" because of the tension created by not scoring early goals.

Ford's booters will play their last non-league game today against Amherst, before beginning a seven-game slate of Ivy League contests at Cornell on Friday.