Men's Soccer Shut Out Again

The Harvard men's soccer team agonized yesterday for the second straight game over the fact that you can't win when you don't score.

Princeton scored the only goal of the match 9:30 into the first half and defeated Harvard, 1-0, at Ohiri Field before a Head of the Charles day crowd of over 250 people.

The loss was the fifth time Harvard (3-8-1 overall, 1-3-1 Ivy) had been shutout this season. Last Wednesday, Boston College defeated the Crimson 2-0.

A strong wind that gusted over 30 miles an hour played a major role in dictating the action. Kicks in the air against the wind didn't go very far, and kicks with the wind almost always went past their intended targets.

"It was a nightmare to play in that wind," senior defender Mark Howansky said.

The Crimson won the coin toss before the game and opted to go with strong gust at its back to start the game. But even though Harvard more than doubled Princeton's time of possession, it was the Tigers who lit up the scoreboard--despite going against the wind.

Tiger senior Wally Cheng stole the ball from a Harvard midfielder and passed it up to junior speedster Mike Busch. Busch raced up the left side of the field and crossed the ball high to the right side for a perfect header into the net by sophomore Jacob Dowden.

The goal was the Tigers' only shot for the first 44 minutes of the match.

"We held them at bay most of the half," Harvard Coach Steve Locker said. "They scored their goal the first time they were down in our end."

The Crimson put a lot of pressure on the Tigers in the first period, but seven scoring opportunities were killed because of offside penalties. Five of those happened in the first 15 minutes alone.

"It makes defending a little easier if you don't have to run after those guys," Princeton Coach Bob Bradley said.

However, it wasn't the offsides that killed Harvard as much as the Crimson's inability to get strong shots at the Princeton goal. Too often Harvard passed up open shots from the top of the penalty box in an attempt to move the ball closer to the Princeton net.

The end result for most of those plays was that a Princeton defender recovered and cleared the ball away.

A strong positive for Harvard was its defensive play. Although the Tigers outshot the Crimson nine to seven, the backfield was able to limit the Tigers to only four quality shots.

Sophomore goalie Ned Carlson made was credited with two saves, while junior midfielder Bo Bernhard made a great reflex kick save on another shot going into the net 18 minutes into the second half.

But despite these heroics, the Tigers are still undefeated in league play, while the Crimson can at best finish .500 in the Ancient Eight if it wins its final two games at Dartmouth and Brown.