Columbia Blanks Harvard Booters; 3-0 Setback Gives Squad 0-2 Record

NEW YORK--As Kurtis Blow would say, there are eight million stories in the naked city.

Saturday morning, one of these stories--a true one--involved 22 players, two coaching staffs and more than a thousand fans. This was the story of an athletic contest, a men's soccer game between Columbia and Harvard, which ended 90 minutes after it began, and which saw some of its protagonists--those from Columbia--leave the pitch happy because they had scored three goals, and the others-from Harvard-leaving not to happy because they hadn't scored any.

Although the game itself was somewhat more even than the score would indicate, the problem which plagued the Crimson throughout the match--and one which it must resolve--was that it couldn't put the ball into the goal.

"We couldn't have scored in a brothel today," Harvard striker John Catliff said after the game.

Saturday's victory keeps the Lions, six-time defending Ivy champs and last year's national runners up, undefeated with a record of two wins and one tie. The Crimson which fell to 0-2, faces Connecticut Wednesday at Ohiri Field.

The Crimson's frustrations were aggravated by the efficiency of the Columbia defense, which executed the offside trap almost professionally any time the Harvard eleven tried to penetrate. As a result, Harvard's scoring hopes never reached fruition. Also contributing to the setback was the gadfly-like function performed by the Lions' Caribbean-born front line of Solomon Gayle, Dexter Skeene and Kingsley chin, all three of whom stayed in the faces of the Crimson back four throughout the game.

During the earlier minutes of the first half, the play was mostly limited to the midfield, with neither defense or goalkeeper having a whole lot to do. But the Lions were able to claw their way onto the scoreboard in the 18th minute when freshman midfielder James Allard, after receiving a pass 18 yards out from All-Ivy left back Kevin McCarthy, blasted an Exocet into the upper right corner of the goal past keeper Matt Ginsburg.

Neither team was able to score again in the first half, partially due to the aforementioned offside trap but also due to a lack of finishing on the part of the Harvard strikers.

In the second half, the play became more end-to-end, with the Lions quickly counterattacking after each Crimson scoring opportunity was thwarted. The second goal of the game came in the 52nd minute when Gayle deflected a Chin shot off the left post into the not past a surprised Ginsburg, who really didn't have a prayer.

"Peter Shilton [perhaps the world's best goalie] couldn't have stopped that one," Crimson Coach Jape Shattuck said.

Although the play became more and more concentrated in the Crimson half of the pitch, Harvard did come close in the 53rd, the 57th and the 68th minutes, when Lion 'keeper Jeff Micheli saved from Catliff with panther-like quickness, often from point-blank range.

As the game neared its end, Harvard's hopes became more and more faint. Columbia dealt the death blow to the Crimson in the 78th minute with the most beautiful goal of the game. McCarthy, taking a free kick on the left side about 23 yards from goal, pushed the ball over to Gayle, who bent a Brazilian-style volley into the path of an onrushing Skeene near the right corner of the goal. He finished the triangle by heading over Ginsburg into the left side of the goal.

Finish Off

Columbia Coach Dieter Ficken, who before the game called Harvard one of the Lions' toughest Ivy opponents, was surprised at Harvard's lack of finishing. "They should have scored some goals. They had plenty of opportunities," Ficken said.

On the Harvard side, optimism, even after the loss, prevailed. "We're better than last year's team. I think it's going to come eventually," Captain Lane Kenworthy said.

Shattuck was equally optimistic. "I'm very, very pleased with how they played. We're dead last in the Ivies now, but it's way too early to draw any conclusions. We were dead last last year at this time, and we ended up third."