Crimson Boots Wesleyan, 5-2

The varsity soccer team evened its season record at 1-1 by notching a 5-2 win over a feisty Wesleyan University squad yersteday at the Business School field.

Sophomore Lee Nelson led a swarming Crimson offense, blasting two goals past hapless Wesleyan goaltender, Dan Burgioni, and assisting on a third tally.

Team captain Fred Herold stunned the Wesleyan offensive with a spectacular performance in the Harvard goal. Herold corralled 13 shots on goal, three of which were drilled from point-blank range.

The Crimson booters played tight-passing soccer in the first half, but Wesleyan initiated the scoring as Oren Schlieman poked a dribbling shot past Herold during a scramble in front of the net, at 4:35.

At 21:20 into the first half Nelson drilled Harvard's first score, when the Crimson were awarded an indirect kick inside the penalty area. Junior standout Matt Bowyer tapped the ball to Nelson, who knocked it past the wall of Wesleyan defenders and goalie Burgioni to make the count Harvard 1, Weslevan 1.

Nelson supplied the Crimson with a 2-1 advantage at 29:20, placing a breakaway shot into the lower left hand corner of the goal. Freshman Walter Diaz, from Dix Hills, N.Y., headed the ball to Nelson who sprinted to the goal uncontested.

"It was a through ball in the air to Walter[Diaz] and he headed it perfectly to me," Nelson said yesterday.

Scoring

Bowyer pumped Harvard's lead to 3-1, capitalizing on a Wesleyan defensive error 20 feet in front of the goal mouth. Bowyer, who performed as a midfielder his freshman and sophomore years, followed the play from his right wing position and booted a left-footed shot into the goal.

Nelson, a speedy, ever-present offensive threat against Wesleyan, chipped a loose ball off the opponent's crossbar. Diaz, alertly trailing the play, trapped the rebound and cooly blazed a bomb by Burgioni, putting the Crimson comfortably ahead, 4-1.

Wesleyan started the second half playing fired-up soccer. Offensively, the visitors began to apply pressure, but Herold and fullbacks Lorenzo diBonaventura, Jim Langton and John Sanacore skillfully countered with a tough style of defense.

Herold played the angles in the goal with such fortitude that Wesleyan's nifty offense found itself staring at the Crimson goaltenders' chest most of the game. However, at 20:20 of the second half, Jonathan Brewne took a rebound off that same chest and found the net for Wesleyan's second score.

Senior Rob Carey scored Harvard's fifth goal with 25 seconds remaining in the game to add a sparkling finish to the Crimson's first victory of this young season.