Men Booters Fly Past Eagles

CHESTNUT HILL--There were three minutes left in the second overtime of last night's Harvard-Boston College soccer game.

A shoving match was breaking out at midfield. The Eagles had been called for dangerous play and the Crimson forwards were fighting back.

It was late. It was dark. It was cold.

Crimson back Robert Bonnie didn't feel like waiting for the referees to stop the growing scuffle.

He aimed, he shot, and he scored--a 50-yard kick high into the vacant B.C. net to put the Crimson up, 1-0.

Eagle goalie Peter Zaffino, busy defending his teammates on the field, didn't take notice until it was too late. Harvard had already scored the game's only goal.

"The goalie went out of the goal...I guess to protect his players," Harvard Coach Mike Getman said. "Bonnie was alert, took the kick, and put it in."

Bonnie's second tally of the season was all the Crimson (4-0-2) needed to seal a 1-0 victory in its third double-overtime game of the season.

The contest should have been merely a warm-up for the week's big match-up Saturday on Cornell's astroturf field. But B.C.'s unfamiliar, slick playing surface left the Crimson cold for most of the opening half.

"The game plan for the opposing team was better in the first half," Getman said. "They're on their home field, so they're used to the bounces."

Getman adjusted the team's playing style following halftime in order to combat the different effects of the artificial playing surface.

"We had trouble playing it on the ground, so we decided to go ahead and play it over the top," he explained. "We adjusted and it worked for us."

Crimson goalie Stephen Hall needed no warm-up--he was hot from the first moments of the game.

In an early scoring drive, the Eagles fired three straight shots at the junior goalkeeper--an omen of the test to come. But Hall held steady throughout the contest, facing 19 shots en route to his third shutout of the season.

"[Hall] came up big for us," Getman said. "[B.C.] had some good chances, but he just played his usual game. I'm really happy with his performance this season."

The only adjustment Hall had to make was to a new pair of gloves--he borrowed teammate Chad Reilly's after tearing his pair midway through the second half.

"[B.C.] plugged away from the start," Hall said, "but they're not too dangerous. If we had just scored a quick one, we would have killed them."

The whistle blew often as the Eagles played a little handball and were called for off-sides several times. Ten minutes into the first half, B.C. midfielder Chris Lugossy took advantage of a scramble in front of the Harvard goal to net one to the left of Hall. But the score was negated because one of his teammates was out of position.

Senior back Andy Dale moved into the sweeper position and junior Louis Lyons started at back to form a fast defense duo for the Crimson. Last year's sweeper--Captain Mark Pepper--and back Gian D'Ornellas both remain on the injured list.

The Crimson's next contest is Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y., when Harvard takes on the Big Red.