The small story buried beneath the trimphant exaltations of Harvard's conquering hockey heroes on page seven of last Wednesday's Crimson was not a typographical error.

For those of you who read past the inauspicious headline "'Cliffe Cagers Rout Newton College," that might be hard to believe. But Radcliffe really did rout Newton by a score of 74 to a meager 7.

Overshadowed by the magnificent accomplishments of Billy Cleary's icemen who took apart a supposedly-strong Boston University squad, 7-2, Newton's pasting went almost unnoticed. While a crowd of 2,272 rowdies whooped it up in Watson Rink, there was only a handful of spectators up on the fifth floor of the IAB to witness the embarrassment of the Newton quintet.

What happened? Did Satch use the hapless Newton squad as a tune-up for the Volunteer Basketball tournament this weekend? Was this a practical joke by somebody in the scheduling office?

"Our first team was sick," Sister Cotter, Newton College's Athletic Director explained yesterday, "the night before one girl had quite a serious attack. It was awful, just awful."

Radcliffe mentor John McCarthy did not attempt to take advantage of the illness-decimated Newton squad, however, as he quickly substituted his junior varsity players in the second half. The varsity managed to shut Newton out in the first ten minutes to take a 35-3 lead to the locker at halftime. The J.V.s held the enemy to four points in the second.

"There were no hard feelings about the game at all," Sister Cotter emphasized, "Our girls were distressed and embarrassed, but they took it beautifully."

"In reality it wasn't a true showing," She added, "We just didn't have our first team. Both coaches felt badly about it."

McCarthy, in fact offered to schedule a rematch sometime after Christmas when the Newton squad is once again healthy. "There was great understanding on the part of the Radcliffe coach," Cotter added. This may be the last time Newton College will appear on the basketball schedule, as the institution will be absorbed by Boston College next June.

Sister Cotter will be looking ahead to the next game, "The less said about the last one, the better. It was just plain embarrassing."