Three pre-season favorites, Harvard, Columbia, and Brown, moved to the top of the Ivy League soccer standings with victories over the weekend and established a close three-team race for the championship.

The Crimson remained in first place after its strong win over Penn last Saturday, 3-0. Columbia humiliated Cornell, 5-1, and Brown easily defeated Princeton, 3-1, to stay within two points of Harvard.

Although Brown has little chance of winning the Ivy crown, the Bruins are the key factor-in the battle between Harvard and Columbia Brown will play the Crimson in Cambridge next Saturday and then face the Lions in the final game of the Ivy season.

This week's games match the first division teams against the second, and each of the three league-leading teams are heavily favored. Harvard is at Princeton, Columbia at Dartmouth, Cornell at Brown, and Yale at Penn.

Shots at Sanzo

At Providence last week, Princeton took several dangerous shots at Bruin goalie John Sanzo in the first period, but the Brown defense held the Tiger attack until Bruin sophomores Dick McEvoy and Dick Lay put Brown in the lead. After falling behind 2-0, Princeton lost its spirit and the game dragged to a 3-1 conclusion.

Columbia had its finest game of the season against Cornell and forward. Omar Chamma scored twice to set a school record of 13 goals in a single season. All-Ivy fullback Rocco Commisso is now playing center forward and has scored seven goals in four games.

Yale won-its first Ivy game of the year against Dartmouth, 3-0, John Clarke scored twice in the second half and goalie Ken Pasternak preserved the shutout that lifted the Bulldogs out of the league cellar.

Solomon Gomez, who had a goal and an assist in Harvard's 3-0 victory over Penn, leads the Ivy League scoring race with three goals and four assists in four games. The Harvard captain is the defending Ivy scoring champion.

Assist

Gomez's closest competition comes from teammate Charlie Thomas who has four goals, most in the league, and one assist.

Crimson goalies Shep Messing and Bill Meyers lead the Ivy League net-minders with a combined 0.50 goals per game average. Together, the Harvard goalies have made 46 saves and have two shutouts.

Standings

W L T Pts

Harvard 4 0 0 8

Columbia 3 1 0 6

Brown 2 1 1 5

Penn 1 1 2 4

Cornell 1 2 1 3

Yale 1 3 0 2

Princeton 1 3 0 2

Dartmouth 1 3 0 2