NEW YORK--The Columbia Lions retained their position at the apex of Ivy soccer power in a muddy battle with Harvard here at Baker Field today, snatching a 3-1 win.

Shahin Shayan of Tehran , Iran proved to be the spiritual and physical leader of the Lions, as last year's Ivy scoring champ tallied once, and generated excitement every time he touched the ball.

It wasn't how badly Harvard played that made this game disturbing-- it was how they played badly. Harvard has retained all of last year's bad habits. It controlled the ball fairly well until the strikers reached the Lion's penalty area and defended effectively until sloppiness overcame the back lines in front of the Harvard goal.

The public address told the pitiful story at the end of the second half: "Shots on goal--Harvard-0."

"We need someone to take it on himself to shoot," Coach George Ford understated after the game. "It's the kind of thing where if someone starts shooting it can become contagious. We have to learn to take what's being offered to us, rather than looking toward the next path."

On defense, goalie Pete Walsh had several sensational saves, but his own sloppiness led to two of Columbia's goals.

A wet field and a slick ball combined with some questionable Crimson strategy to give the Lion's a few opportunities in the first ten minutes. "We got caught up trying to play short passes," Ford explained. Harvard's bunching led to two, carbon copy break-aways by Shayan within three minutes. In both cases, he took an alley-oop style pass from behind midfield and broke in behind a Crimson defender, moving his gawky frame with deceptive speed. Walsh charged Shayan, inducing him to shoot wide to the right from high in the penalty area.

Six-ft., five-in Lion goaltender John McElaney used his octopus-like arms tostymie all Harvard activity in the Columbia zone until almost 20 minutes had passed in the first half. Alberto Billar, back in action this year after being sidelined last fall by a rare tropical disease that would not allow him to sweat, opened the scoring with a long, right-footed shot from the upper left hand corner of the penalty box. McElaney elected to let the shot go, expecting to take a goal kick, but a pronounced hook grazed the ball off the post and into the net.

Visions of a Crimson upset of last year's Ivy champs in both teams' season opener quickly were blurred as Shayan atoned for his earlier misses by taking a long pass and beating a helpless Walsh one-on-one.

Columbia began to apply pressure and Tommy Panayotidi caught Walsh out of the nets. The Crimson goalkeeper com-Tommy Panayotidi caught Walsh out of the nets. The Crimson goalkeeper committed himself too early and Panayotidi easily dribbled the ball into the left side of the net.

Five minutes into the second half, the Crimson beating itself as Walsh led a looping shot go through his arms, leaving an open ball and an open net for Steve Charles, who easily blasted one into the net.

After that, it was garbage time as Columbia had deciphered Ford's strategy of dropping the ball into the wing area, going heavily to Mauro Keller-Sarmiento despite heavy Lion coverage. The Lions employed a time-killing strategy of long passes, giving McElaney an opportunity to practice his booming punch.