Harvard's one-two junior scoring punch of Scott Robertson and Jaime Vargas came through with second-half goals for a tight 2-1 triumph over Yale at New Haven Friday. Vargas's score, with four minutes to play, gave Harvard a final 8-3-1 season mark and paced the Crimson's three-team soccer sweep.
The Harvard junior varsity maintained its three-year undefeated record with a 5-2 win, and Solomon Gomez and Peter Bogovich tallied three goals apiece in the freshmen's 8-1 rout of the Bullpups.
Robertson broke the ice that formed in a cold, windy first half with a goal at 5:17 of the third quarter. Harvard's familiar short-passing attack worked to perfection as the Crimson forwards moved downfield. Vargas to Robertson to center forward Ahmed Yehia then back to Robertson. As Eli goalie Steve Greenberg moved out to cut down the angle, the junior left wing punched the ball into the far lower right corner.
Bugaboo
Five minutes later the Bulldogs dead-locked Harvard in the chilly fray, on the play that has bugabooed the generally stalwart Crimson defense in recent games.
Yale sophomore King Ohene-Frempong sent a hard corner kick across the goalmouth and junior Bob Arras headed it sharply inside the right post. Harvard goalie John Axten was reduced to an ornament as the Crimson backs allowed their third corner-kick goal in the last three games.
The Elis came closest to the lead at the start of the fourth quarter when two hard shots rammed off Axten at the edge of the penalty area. After that both teams had trouble mounting scoring threats as the referees whistled down drives again and again for off-sides violations.
Vargas Scores
Regulation time was drawing to a close when right halfback Abi Azikiwe's long pass outdistanced the referee and was picked up by Crimson right wing Gerry Montero. Montero fed Vargas in the middle, and the inside from Colombia drove the winning goal past Greenberg, who again was advancing in vain.
Yale raced the clock to catch up, but couldn't get past the Harvard backs. In a memorable last-minute sprint, the Elis sprung their fastest forward, Mike Mueller, down the right wing, but Crimson center half Richie Hardy caught the speedster and rode the play away from danger.
Play was even but slow most of the afternoon and except for the Crimson goal never produced the excitement of last week's Harvard-Brown encounter. Greenberg, one of ten Eli starters who will return next season, made 11 saves while Axten, playing in his final contest for Harvard, recorded 9.
The finest of Axten's saves--a diving grab of a grasscutter aimed at the far corner--came in the first period, Yale's strongest. Two minutes after that try, Crimson captain Joe Gould robbed Yale's left wing of an open-net, point-blank shot with a lunging deflection of a perfect center which had passed Axten.
Unbenched
Gould, rescued from the Crimson bench, finished his Harvard career with his finest performance of late. Fullback Dave Wright and inside Lutz Hoeppner, the other seniors in the starting lineup, played up to their usual level and should be around when the All-Ivy honors are distributed.
The win moved Harvard into third place in the Ivy League standings behind Brown and Penn, with a 4-2-1 mark. Yale, at 3-3-1, tied with Cornell for fourth.
Read more in News
Coop to Confront Textbook Issue