Varsity Booters Devastate Engineers; Offense Nets Season-High in 7-1 Rout

The varsity soccer team unleashed an awesome offensive attack yesterday, routing MIT, 7-1. The victory evened the Crimson's record at 6-6-1.

Before yesterday's display, the three goals scored against Columbia last month ranked as the Crimson offense's best effort of the season. Against MIT, the Harvard booters forced so many scoring opportunities that they ran up the margin despite poor first-half shooting and stingy MIT goaltending.

Only two minutes into the contest, George Grassby launched the ball toward the MIT goal, and Dave Acorn headed it into the net for the game's first score.

Frustration

Bad luck frustrated the Crimson for the rest of the first half. The Harvard players moved precisely in a patterned attack, consistently keeping the ball downfield. Time after time, they moved in on the opposition's goal, but their shots hooked wide or were blocked by an MIT defender.

Engineer goalie Charles Sommer notched nine saves in the opening half, and twice an MIT fullback charged into the crease to block a Crimson shot.

Every time MIT's forwards tried to move the ball upfield, they lost it to Crimson players clogging the passing lanes. The game was more than 16 minutes old before MIT managed its first shot. Harvard goalie Fred Herold had to make only two saves to shut out the Engineers in the first half.

With two minutes left before intermission, Grassby stole the ball from MIT fullback Brad Morrison in front of the Engineer goal, dribbled past another player, and chipped the ball past the defenseless goalie for Harvard's second tally.

A Landmark of Sorts

The goal was a landmark of sorts, making Grassby the first Harvard player besides Dave Acorn to score in almost a month. Since Chris Saunders tallied against Cornell six games ago, Acorn has shouldered the whole Crimson scoring load.

In the second half, Harvard coach George Ford substituted freely, and Harvard's ball control deteriorated. It really didn't matter. The Crimson fired fewer shots, but now they were on target.

In the last half, Mark Zimmering notched a pair of goals, and Mike Lohrer and David Eaton added one each. To finish the scoring, Acorn struck with his second tally of the game. He also had a second half assist, as did Eaton and Eric Zager.

Harvard faces Brown on Saturday in a critical contest that will probably decide second place in the Ivy League.