Cornell Downs Princeton For Ivy Soccer Crown

Cornell's soccer team emerged from a rough-and-tumble game on Princeton's Poe Field Saturday morning as the proud owners of a 3-1 victory over the Tigers and the 1977 Ivy league championship.

The Big Red entered the showdown contest with a 4-1-1 league record (to Princeton's 4-2), and the left the clearcut class of the Ivies.

Despite the rough physical nature of the game--the referees handed out three yellow card warnings--Cornell managed to control play through most of the 90- minute donnybrook.

Right off the opening gun, the Red booters took the game to Princeton goalie Guy Cipriano, and twice in the first half they scored. Adrian McKibbin took a pass from Jim Rice, dribbled past two defenders, and then pivoted to drill a near-post shot past Cipriano at 11:50.

Rice then turned the trick himself, beating the Princeton defense at 22:16 of the opening period to put Cornell in the driver's seat, 2-0.

The Tigers did not reach the title contest without establishing themselves as one of the top teams in the East, though, and in the second part of the first period they asserted themselves.

League scoring leader Paul Milone punched home his eighth goal of the season at 38:54 to spark the Princeton effort, and with the several thousand-strong home crowd going berserk, the Tigers began to press.

The offense started to pepper Cornell goalie Chris Ward with shots, hitting the post twice before the end of the half but failing to score again.

But Cornell quickly re-assumed possession of the game's momentum in the second period, securing the win and the title on Kurt Bettger's goal at 27:24.

In other league contests, defending champ Brown (3-2-2) powdered Columbia (3-4), 6-0, to move into third place in the standings. Penn (3-3-1) handled Dartmouth (2-4-1) at home, 3-1, to tie Harvard for fourth place.