For 80 minutes, the Harvard men's soccer team went dead even with Princeton Saturday at Ohiri Field. But when the final whistle blew, the booters were on the low end of a 3-1 result.

The reasons for the Crimson's loss--which dropped its season record to 4-2-3 and 1-2-1 in the Ivies--are hard to pin down. If the booters were astronauts, you could say they didn't have The Right Stuff against the Tigers.

Harvard did not have a bad match. But the Crimson did not show the same kind of consistent control, the minute-by-minute domination of the pace of play that has won it some games, and kept it close in games against powerful teams.

In the opening 40 minutes, the booters looked ready to play their kind of match. Princeton stung them early, when Tiger midfielder John Bettino intercepted a bad pass at the half stripe and sent the ball to fellow halfback Tom Poz, who converted the breakaway at 5:41.

But the Tiger tally inspired the Crimson, and it began to settle into methodic build-ups. Starting from the back line. Harvard brought the ball up the field and started challenging the Princeton goalmouth.

The pressure turned into a goal that Coach Jape Shattuck described as "perhaps the best goal we've ever scored."

Junior fullback Matt Cameron started the play, bringing the ball past midfield on the right wing and centering to reserve forward Tarek Nazir, who was making a run in the Princeton penalty area.

Nazir, replacing regular starter John Catliff, sent the ball back to the edge of the penalty box toward a charging Leo Lanzillo. The Crimson's senior captain hammered a 20-yard right-footed half volley that blazed past Princeton goalkeeper Jim Andersen.

"That play had everything--a good buildup from our defense, an excellent pass into Princeton's box and fine finishing by Leo," explained Shattuck.

The Harvard guns didn't fall silent after that shot, but never hit the target again. The booters made the chances but didn't finish.

"We had chances to make it 2-1," said Shattuck. "I think we played well enough to get an equalizing goal or a winning goal."

Part of the problem was the absence of Catliff, the team's leading scorer, who went to Canada to play in the national club championship. Although a skilled ballhandler, Nazir did not contribute to the Crimson offense as does Catliff--who frequently demonstrates the caliber of play that makes him an Olympic hopeful in his home country.

"It's hard to judge what would have happened," said Shattuck.

"It's tough without Catliff," Lanzillo explained.

The rest of the problem was the resulting see-saw style of play, with both teams randomly reversing the momentum and exhibiting some modicum of control.

"We had stretches of good play and stretches when it slipped away; that's the effect of a good defensive team like Princeton," Shattuck said.

But with 5:23 remaining, the Tigers took control for good. Fullback Steve Milke crossed to Joe Walsh on a breakaway into the Crimson end. Walsh's shot was parried by senior goalie Phil Coogan, but forward Michael Rosenbruch put away the rebound from three yards for the game-winning goal.

Two minutes later, Milke tallied on a two-on-two break that exploited Harvard's shift into a man-to-man defense.