A hustling defense and Jim Sacco's first-period goal proved the difference, as Lowell House nudged Eliot, 1-0, for the House soccer championship yesterday.
The Lowell victory in the playoff finals avenged its only loss of the season, 1-0, to Eliot last month.
Sacco's decisive goal was set up by center forward Henry Fields, who stole a rebound from Eliot goalie Sandy Maisel. Fields passed to left inside Sacco, who booted the ball into the abandoned goal.
Lowell beat Eliot to the ball at every turn and barely missed several other scoring opportunities. Fields, who moonlighted wth the junior varsity soccer squad this fall, had three clear breakaway shots, but one went high, another was blocked by Maisel, and the third was called back because of an offside violation.
Eliot pulled its goalie out and used a desperation 11-man attack in the fourth quarter, but the Lowell defense, led by Captain Curt Greene and halfbacks Charlie Martin and Pete Johnson, withstood the assault.
Lowell goalie Chris Cutler, a fullback on last year's freshman squad, had little trouble notching the shutout.
At the end of the round-robin House schedule, Lowell and Eliot were tied with 7-1 records. Eliot's lone regular season loss was also by a 1-0 margin -- at the hands of fourth-place Winthrop.
The championship was decided by an elimination playoff among the four top teams. To reach yesterday's finals, Lowell came from behind to edge Winthrop last Tuesday, 2-1, on two goals by inside Dave Fuller.
In its semi-final battle, Eliot was knotted in a scoreless tie with third-place Kirkland at the end of regulation time. Kirkland broke the ice in the first five-minute overtime, but Eliot repeated an earlier overtime win against Kirkland by scoring twice in the second overtime.
Lowell will play the winner of Yale's intramural league in New Haven Friday. The other three Harvard first-division teams will also meet Eli college teams.
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